Lawmakers Push HHS to Force Lilly to Restore 340B Discounts
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- Dozens of congressional lawmakers sent a bipartisan letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging the Trump administration to compel Eli Lilly to reinstate mandated price breaks under the federal 340B drug discount program.
- Eli Lilly stopped offering 340B discounts last month, targeting roughly 50 larger hospital systems among approximately 1,000 hospitals that had not complied with a new policy requiring claims data submissions.
- The lawmakers argue Lilly is failing to comply with federal law by eliminating the price breaks, while the affected hospitals had refused to provide the company with claims data.
- Lilly maintains the cutoff was meant to reduce duplicate discounts and says roughly 70% of participating hospitals — more than 2,300 facilities — had already provided claims data.
- The 340B program requires drug manufacturers to offer price breaks to hospitals serving low-income populations, and Lilly's move has triggered the bipartisan congressional challenge.
Why it matters: Hospitals serving low-income communities rely on 340B savings to stretch resources, and Lilly's cutoff — affecting about 50 hospital systems — has drawn bipartisan pushback alleging a federal-law violation. Lilly counters by citing 70% compliance among the program's 2,300-plus participating hospitals, framing the cutoff as targeting non-compliant holdouts rather than broad disruption.
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