Cardinal Introduces PatientPAK 340B

The PatientPAK 340B program is the newest service offered by Cardinal Health Inc. The program packages and delivers medications in patient-ready, unit-of-use quantities to federally qualified health care providers. More than 11,000 340B eligible facilities exist and include family planning clinics, community health centers, and a broad range of specialty care clinics.

The PatientPAK 340B was designed to improve the efficiency of community health care centers by eliminating the need to pour, count, and package each prescription. The program will support these centers' efforts to improve patient safety by delivering some of the routinely dispensed medications in patient-ready units that have been prepackaged in the most frequently prescribed quantities.

The PatientPak 340B should help improve the overall efficiency of the supply chain, reduce or reallocate labor expenses, decrease excess inventory, and increase patient safety. The program is overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which mandates a federally determined ceiling price for pharmaceutical purchases by entities that give treatment to patients of HRSA-funded grantees.