A closed down Walgreens at Roosevelt Road and Homan Avenue, one of many shuttered West Side retail pharmacies in recent years, was the site for a weekend rally aimed at protecting the 340B Drug Discount Program through state law.

Leaders of federally qualified clinics and safety-net hospitals joined local politicians to highlight what they say is a success story for the drug program, which helped provide funding for the upcoming opening of Lawndale Christian Health Center’s own pharmacy on the site.

The 340B program, established in 1992, is a federal law allowing eligible health care providers access to steep discounts on prescription drugs, which they can provide to patients at lower or sliding scale costs, or seek full reimbursement from health insurers. Fully reimbursed for the discounted drugs, providers keep the difference.

The savings from 340B was a major reason that Lawndale Christian was able to buy the former Walgreens site and make plans to bring a pharmacy back to North Lawndale, an extreme drug store desert, James Brooks, CEO of Lawndale Christian Health Center, said in an interview with Crain’s.

The new pharmacy, set to open in April, can ease some of the larger West Side community’s burden from having three Walgreens and two CVS stores close in recent years, said Dr. Wayne Detmer, chief clinical officer for the federally qualified health center.

"Access to medications is as much a social determinant of health as anything, and people in our communities were already challenged in accessing medicines," he said. "You take away pharmacies, and it compounds the problem."

The Lawndale Christian pharmacy, as part of a FQHC with a federal mandate to serve the Medicaid and uninsured population, is a "closed pharmacy," Detmer said, meaning a person must be a patient of the health center to receive services. Which is why, he said, there will be a walk-in clinic there to get locals signed up for primary care and allow them to take advantage of the pharmacy.

Buying the pharmacy also pushes Lawndale Christian’s services into communities that lie north of its current service area, another example of how 340B funding gets funneled back into communities, he said.

The question of whether 340B savings are reinvested in the communities that providers serve is up for debate lately, with pharmaceutical makers and employer groups stating there’s no proof safety-net hospitals aren’t just using the program as a profit center.

Depending on who you talk to, the program is either a critical revenue source that keeps FQHCs and safety-net hospital doors open to needy patients, or an out-of-control boondoggle for a burgeoning number of hospitals and for-profit pharmacists.

The providers and state legislators who spoke Feb. 1 are urging state representatives to pass House Bill 2371, with Senate amendment 2 in the latest General Assembly session.

The Illinois Senate has passed the bill unanimously and the House Executive Committee has as well, leaving only a concurrence vote to send it to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.

However, opponents, including pharmaceutical manufacturers represented by the national trade group PhRMA, say the U.S. Congress should be regulating 340B, not each state.

Drugmakers also argue 340B applies to all patients, rich and poor, and in recent years has grown to the second-biggest drug pricing program, next to Medicare Part D.

PhRMA says the program needs to be reined in and they want providers to be more transparent about how 340B-related funds go back to the uninsured and underinsured.

"340B is driving up costs for patients, taxpayers and employers. We support federal reforms that improve program integrity and help ensure savings reach those who need them most," PhRMA spokesman Tom Wilbur said in a recent emailed statement. "PhRMA will continue working with policymakers to advance federal solutions that protect patients and increase transparency.”

"Whatever savings we receive from the program, the truth is it goes right back into the community," Brooks said. "Health care begins with primary care and that’s preventative care, and through 340B, we’re allowed to provide that care for everyone."