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By the numbers (FY 2023): Realized 340B Program Savings: $335.2 million Charity Care and Medicaid Share of Uncompensated Care Costs: $373 million Medicare Share of Uncompensated Care Costs: $941 million Medicare Disproportionate Share Adjustment Percentage: 28.65%, representative of our Medicaid, Medicare and self-pay mix |
Our 340B Story
About UCSF Medical Center
UCSF Medical Center is a public academic medical center serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, Central Valley and beyond. We deliver the highest quality care across a wide range of specialties, procedures and conditions.
We're proud to serve all members of our community regardless of the severity of their illness, their income level or their area of residence. UCSF is among the largest Medicaid providers in Northern California as well as San Francisco's largest provider of hospital care for Medicaid patients. More than 23% of our total patient services are provided to Medicaid patients, a number that has grown statewide due to California's Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. In fiscal year 2023, UCSF Medical Center provided more than $1 billion in uncompensated care to Medicare and Medicaid patients.
As a primarily self-supporting institution, UCSF Medical Center relies heavily on savings generated from participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program to offset financial losses incurred in caring for underinsured and uninsured patients.
Benefits of the program
Savings realized through participation in the 340B program support UCSF's ability to provide services and health care to the community's most vulnerable populations. These funds allow UCSF to lower prescription drug costs for eligible low-income and underinsured patients.
In addition to increasing the accessibility of prescription medications, UCSF provides a variety of services to support our community. These services include:
- Underwriting the cost of promising new treatments, such as CAR T-cell therapy
- For patients who have Medicaid or no insurance, providing access to specialty programs that perform lifesaving treatments, such as organ transplants, complex cancer care, immunological care (including stem cell transplants), neurological and neurosurgical care, cardiovascular care and heart surgery
- Sponsoring educational outreach events to help older adults in the Bay Area decide which Part D plans will be most cost-effective for them and to help them maximize their existing drug benefits
- Subsidizing pharmacists providing HIV management to a largely Medicaid population
- Employing patient assistance coordinators whose sole responsibility is removing financial barriers and coordinating funding to meet our patients' health care needs
- Providing access, based on financial need, to chemotherapy and immunotherapy for Medi-Cal and uninsured patients at on-site infusion centers and clinics
- Maintaining a food bank that provides groceries to patients experiencing food insecurity
Consequences of scaling back
At UCSF Health, we are committed to our mission to care, heal, teach and discover. This mission is central to everything we do. Despite declining reimbursements over past years, UCSF Health has resisted reducing mission-critical services and has instead utilized funding from the 340B Drug Pricing Program to maintain them.
The removal of 340B pricing at contract pharmacies has directly impacted patients who participate in our community benefits program. For these patients, the high-cost medications used to manage complex diseases are no longer available at the affordable pricing required for sustainable adherence. Additionally, as manufacturers continue to withhold 340B pricing at contract pharmacies, UCSF may lose the funding required to provide or subsidize benefits we provide, affecting thousands of patients every year.