Optimizing 340B to Improve Community Health

How one health center uses prescription discounts to expand patient services

340B-covered entities use prescription drug discounts to improve patient outcomes and fund community healthcare services. Amanda Murray is the 340B program manager for Adelante Healthcare, a certified community health center with nine locations in Arizona serving Maricopa County and a 340B-covered entity. We spoke with Amanda to learn more about Adelante’s 340B program growth and how they’ve leveraged that to fund more community healthcare through their R1 partnership.

Question: Tell us a little about your role at Adelante Healthcare.

Murray: I manage all of the 340B program including our contract pharmacy network and clinic medication rooms. We have a large contract pharmacy network. Maricopa county is large and we need to make sure that all of our patients have access to the medication they need. Even more important, our patients need to be able to afford their medications, and our 340B program makes that possible.

Question: What community health services does the 340B program help you provide?

Murray: We’ve been able to expand our services to offer dental care to adults in the community. We’ve also been able to provide important obstetric and prenatal services to mothers based only on what they can afford to pay and what is generated from 340B — that’s how we subsidize that care. We are also able to help patients access behavioral health services.

Question: How does R1 340B Recovery help you capture more 340B savings?

Murray: R1 captures specialist notes and documentation from the referral specialists that we cannot get, so the care that we deliver to our patients is a lot better because we have all that information available for patients’ continuation of care. R1 has helped us expand our resources to help more patients get the critical care they need to stay healthy.

Question: How important is R1 in helping you comply with 340B program requirements?

Murray: It’s huge for us. They have sent us samples of policies and procedures that have helped us to ensure the compliance of our program and that we could build off of as our program continues to grow. Compliance is so fundamental with the 340B program. It was smooth sailing, and I have to say our providers were very pleased when those notes started getting loaded into the patient chart.

Question: How would you characterize the relationship between Adelante and R1?

Murray: R1 has been extremely easy to work with from the very beginning. Having an attentive account manager is an incredible advantage. Whether it’s through email or if we need to jump on a call — whatever I need they’re very flexible and able to accommodate. We’re getting close to about three years that we’ve been using R1, and it has generated a significant amount of closed-loop referrals for us. It warms my heart to help patients stay healthy because they can afford their medications. It makes you feel good to know you are making a difference.

Adelante Healthcare has been using R1 340B Recovery since 2019 and over three years has grown 340B savings by 370%. Their 340B program reimbursements since engaging R1 have delivered millions of dollars to expand services and improve healthcare outcomes for vulnerable populations in Maricopa County communities.

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