Solving compliance issues to build a robust 340B program

Urban Health Plan had shut down its 340B program due to compliance concerns. Restarting the program required a pharmacy partner with the technical savvy to integrate with the organization’s internal system for accurate ordering, tracking and reporting.

Background

Realizing that many of the community’s poorer members could only obtain healthcare by waiting in long lines at hospital emergency rooms, a visionary physician started a clinic for Bronx residents over 40 years ago. Urban Health Plan has since expanded to 17 sites offering healthcare, workforce development, and other services in the Bronx, Queens and Harlem.

Challenge

After ending its previous 340B program due to compliance concerns, Urban Health Plan built a proprietary system that fulfilled their data capture, processing and analysis requirements. The organization needed a pharmacy that could integrate with their system, while ensuring 340B compliance.

Solution

Boca Pharmacy Group’s experts partnered with Urban Health Plan to create a customized system to track 340B patients and prescriptions. The system collected real-time data at the point of service and offered user-driven data matching to withstand audit scrutiny. After launching at a single pharmacy location, the 340B program quickly expanded to multiple sites.

Boca has also provided ongoing support and trained Urban Health Plan staff to ensure program compliance.

Results

Urban Health Plan now has a fully compliant 340B program that serves eight pharmacy locations and processes approximately 30,000 transactions per month, resulting in more than $15 million in annual savings. The program has even impressed state officials during compliance audits.

Boca shares Urban Health Plan’s “patient first” mission, always seeking ways to enhance the patient experience. Boca even covers costs when patients can’t afford co-pays.

“Boca Pharmacy Group is always looking to improve things for the patient. You can’t get anybody better.”
—Mandeep Sikand, Senior Director, Network Development, Urban Health Plan