New CBO report confirms 340B’s ballooning costs. Congress must act.

Dan Crippen was the director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1999 to 2003.

In its first report on the 340B drug discount program's effect on the budget, the Congressional Budget Office revealed that a previously obscure federal program originally meant to help a few dozen safety-net hospitals has exploded into a multibillion-dollar subsidy for thousands of nonprofit hospitals, driving up healthcare costs for patients — burdening taxpayers and contributing to the federal deficit — while delivering little measurable benefit to patients in need.

The good news is that Congress is already working to solve the problem, and in the process can substantially reduce the deficit.

As a former CBO director, I've seen how federal programs can balloon when well-meaning policies are left unche