410 ILCS 665/5: Findings.

(Section scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2032)

The General Assembly finds that:

(1) The intent of the 340B Drug Discount Program is to provide resources to reach more eligible patients and provide more comprehensive services. In doing so, 340B covered entities provide discounted medicines to eligible health care organizations for the purpose of improving access to affordable medications and health care services for low-income, underinsured, uninsured, or otherwise vulnerable patients being treated at eligible hospitals, clinics, federally qualified health centers (FQHC), and safety-net hospitals in or adjacent to vulnerable communities.

(2) Congress intended the 340B Drug Discount Program to provide discounts to 340B covered entities that provide direct health care to uninsured and underinsured vulnerable patients.

(3) The appropriate and effective use of the 340B Drug Discount Program is essential for improving health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable and underserved communities in rural, suburban, and urban areas throughout Illinois meeting the definitions of vulnerable communities.

(4) There is a need for statewide data to evaluate the ways in which 340B Drug Discount Program utilization, financial impact, and patient benefits enable vulnerable Illinoisans to access care and fit into the overall health care safety net framework. Additional transparency in aggregate financial and operational reporting enhances legislative oversight without interfering with federal law. Increased transparency is needed to ensure that vulnerable communities receive the benefits intended from the Patient Access to Pharmacy Protection Act.

(5) To protect vulnerable communities, the General Assembly must pass the Health Equity Infrastructure Access and Stabilization Act. This includes creation of and funding of the following components:

(A) the Vulnerable Community Health Capital Fund Voluntary investment program;

(B) the Community Health Networks of Continuum Care;

(C) the Illinois Safety Net Hospital Package;

(D) the Behavioral and Mental Health (BMH) Access and Expansion Fund;

(E) the Stabilization and Sustainability Operational Funding Program;

(F) the 340B Grantee Contract Pharmacy Access Act integration;

(G) sustainable funding opportunities through transparency of the 340B Federal Program; and

(H) the Unified Health Equity Omnibus Package.

(6) Savings associated with the federal 340B Drug Discount Program may support the financial stability of hospitals, FQHCs, Ryan White providers, rural providers, and other historical safety-net institutions serving vulnerable communities experiencing health care access shortages, provider scarcity, or risk of service reduction or closure.

(7) Vulnerable communities in the State of Illinois are populations or geographic areas whose residents experience disproportionate barriers to achieving optimal health outcomes due to cumulative social, economic, environmental, and structural disadvantages. These communities are characterized by elevated health disparities, limited access to health care services, and increased exposure to risk factors, such as poverty, inadequate insurance coverage, geographic isolation, systemic discrimination, and unmet social determinants of health, including housing, transportation, food security, and environmental conditions, and who, as a result of these conditions, experience reduced access to timely, culturally competent, and geographically proximate community-based hospital and health care services.

(8) This Act is intended solely to establish a State-level reporting and transparency framework to allow the 340B program to be evaluated, and shall not regulate pricing, reimbursement, or participation in the federal 340B Program.