It’s well known that hospitals work with other hospitals and physicians to better serve our community, but did you know we also partnered with local pharmacies too?

Section 340B of the Public Health Service Act requires pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in the Medicaid drug rebate program to sell outpatient drugs at discounted prices to health care facilities that care for uninsured and low-income patients.

The program enables eligible entities such as our hospital to stretch scarce federal resources and provide services to more patients.

In addition, the program generates savings for both the federal and state governments. The program is supported by national organizations such as the American Hospital Association.

The AHA believes the 340B program is essential to helping safety-net providers stretch limited resources to better serve their communities.

Last fiscal year, nearly 11 percent of the patients treated at St. James Parish Hospital were uninsured.

Our hospital provided nearly $5 million worth of uncompensated care to our community, which includes our charity care program and expenses resulting from uncollected payments from patients.

Programs such as 340B help us to defray these rising cost and continue our mission to offer excellent, quality and compassionate care.

At this time, we are partnering with Gem Drugs and Winn Dixie in Gramercy. Our sincere appreciation goes out to these pharmacies for working with us to benefit our community.

We look forward to working with even more local pharmacies.

Mary Ellen Pratt is St. James Parish Hospital CEO. She can be reached at info@sjph.org.