About John Muir Health
John Muir Health is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit health care organization east of San Francisco serving patients in Contra Costa, Alameda, and southern Solano Counties. It includes a network of more than 1,000 primary care and specialty physicians, 6,400 employees, medical centers in Concord and Walnut Creek, including Contra Costa County’s only trauma center, and an Acute Psychiatric Hospital. John Muir Health also has partnerships with UCSF Health, Tenet Healthcare/San Ramon Regional Medical Center, Stanford Children's Health, Carbon Health and Optum. The health system offers a full-range of medical services, including primary care, outpatient, and imaging services, and is widely recognized as a leader in many specialties – neurosciences, orthopedic, cancer, cardiovascular, trauma, emergency, pediatrics and high-risk obstetrics care.
Providing Care for Lower-Income Patients
We are committed to caring for all members of our community regardless of their insurance and ability to pay. John Muir Health is the largest provider of Medi-Cal hospital services in Contra Costa County. Our payor mix is between 70%-75% Medicare and Medi-Cal and rising as the population ages. Collectively, John Muir Health provided more than $600 million in uncompensated care to Medicare and Medi-Cal patients in 2024.
340B Helps Bridge the Funding Gap
340B is a federal program that provides discounts on drugs and expands access to care. The federal government created the 340B program in 1992 to help cover hospitals’ costs of providing uncompensated and undercompensated care, without using taxpayer dollars. In return for participating in the program, pharmaceutical companies are able to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid drug markets.
The 340B program allows hospitals that care for large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients to acquire pharmaceutical drugs at discounted prices. Hospitals must qualify for the program by providing a disproportionate share of care for low-income, uninsured, Medicare or Medi-Cal patients. Savings from the 340B program do not cover all losses associated with Medicaid or Medi-Cal care, but they do help minimize those losses, making it possible for us to provide advanced treatments and services to the most vulnerable and underserved individuals in our communities.
Benefits of the 340B Program
The savings from the 340B program allow us to invest in programs and partnerships to help meet the health care needs of our community. As a not-for-profit health system, John Muir Health is responsible for investing in and caring for vulnerable communities. This includes our low-income, unhoused and uninsured communities throughout Contra Costa County, Alameda County and the Tri-Valley region. We work with our community partners to design programming that is responsive to health needs and proactive in preventing health conditions. We focus our efforts on grant making and direct service programming in ways that are collaborative, innovative and effective.
John Muir Health also relies heavily on savings generated from participating in the 340B Program to offset the costs associated with caring for patients with cancer, a significant number of whom have Medicare or Medi-Cal insurance coverage. These savings allow more patients to access our services and receive the critical treatments they need.
In addition, savings from the 340B Program have enabled John Muir Health to invest in cutting-edge infrastructure, such as the new UCSF-John Muir Health Jean and Ken Hoffman Cancer Center and an onsite specialty pharmacy, as well as a wide range of services, from early detection and diagnosis to innovative therapies, and accessible infusion access. John Muir Health is also actively working to expand our services further into local clinics, which the 340B program makes possible. This expansion will broaden the reach of our care to more locations, ensuring access to cancer care and specialty medications for more patients closer to home in the East Bay.
Potential Impacts of Scaling Back the 340B Program
As a not-for-profit health system, John Muir Health is responsible for investing in and caring for vulnerable communities. Even with the 340B program, Medicaid and Medi-Cal reimbursements often do not cover the discounted acquisition cost of drugs.
Scaling back the 340B program would boost the profits of pharmaceutical companies while harming those hospitals that provide the largest amounts of care to patients who are covered by Medicaid or Medi-Cal, who are uninsured, and/or who live in rural areas of California.
Drug pricing discounts and benefits from the 340B program allow John Muri Health to expand access to lifesaving treatments and provide specialty services that otherwise would not be financially viable. Without the federal 340B program, we would be forced to cut back and restrict access to critical services. The program’s discounts on outpatient drugs also help us absorb the rapidly rising costs of prescription medications.