ENGAGE YOUR WORKFORCE: Help Stop Big Pharma from Undermining 340B
With just six days remaining in the 2025 legislative session, your engagement—and that of your workforce—is critical to passing IHA’s Patient Access to Pharmacy Protection Act (
HB 2371 SA 2), essential legislation to safeguard the 340B program and protect patients’ access to affordable care.
The General Assembly will reconvene in Springfield Oct. 14-16 and 28-30 for the fall Veto Session. During this time, House Representatives will have the opportunity to pass HB 2371 SA 2 and send it to the Governor to be signed into law. But Big Pharma is waging an all-out campaign, spending millions to defeat this bill and protect their bottom line at the expense of hospitals and the vulnerable patients you serve.
Lawmakers need to hear from the people who care for Illinois patients every day. Your voice must rise above Big Pharma’s misinformation.
ACTION REQUESTED: Please share IHA’s Advocacy Alert with your workforce and urge them to immediately contact their House Representative and State Senator through IHA’s voter voice system and ask them to support and call for a vote on HB 2371 SA 2.
Click here to access IHA’s digital messaging platform to send a pre-populated message directly to your House Representative and State Senator.
Emphasize the urgency of passing HB 2371 SA 2 in light of looming federal Medicaid cuts facing Illinois hospitals. Highlight that the 340B program is one of the few tools hospitals have to stretch scarce federal dollars and maintain access to essential healthcare services and lifesaving medications, which comes at no cost to the state.
Stress that pharmaceutical companies are restricting hospitals’ ability to use the program to provide care for their most vulnerable patients and communities, and counter Big Pharma’s misleading claims by explaining that this legislation does not change the 340B program but simply restores its longstanding structure and reverses arbitrary restrictions drug manufacturers have imposed in recent years. Note that similar legislation has already been enacted in 20 other states and upheld by multiple courts.
Rough Landing – Test Your Team’s Readiness
When disaster strikes, every second counts. Join over 100 hospitals on Nov. 5 for IHA’s live, interactive Emergency Preparedness Exercise. This stimulated commercial aircraft emergency landing near a hospital will challenge teams to coordinate, communicate and respond under pressure.
The exercise, “
Rough Landing: A Mass Casualty Event,” will enhance individual and team preparedness in several domains, including responding to a patient surge; maintaining safety for staff, patients and visitors; providing family reunification services; and implementing recovery and resiliency plans.
While focused on the growing concern of aviation accidents, lessons from the exercise will apply to any mass casualty incident (MCI). Such events often occur with little to no warning, and can severely strain available staff, resources, and infrastructure. In addition, MCIs can:
- Disrupt emergency departments;
- Exhaust clinical and non-clinical staff;
- Interrupt elective procedures; and
- Destabilize operations for days or even weeks.
IHA has reduced registration fees to ensure all members can participate in this critical training opportunity. Fees are based on authorized beds and include unlimited staff participation at the registered facility, all Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program exercise materials, facilitation, and continuing education credits. See our
program webpage for more information.
Register today.
Illinois General Assembly to Return This Week for Veto Session
The Illinois General Assembly will reconvene this week for the first week of Veto Session, scheduled for Oct. 14-16 and Oct. 28-30. While the agenda is still being finalized, several key issues seem likely: transit funding, energy affordability, the implications of the federal budget reconciliation package, and proposals on immigration enforcement in Illinois. IHA and the hospital community will continue to push for passage of Patient Access to Pharmacy Protection Act (
HB 2371 SA 2), essential legislation to safeguard the 340B program and protect patients’ access to affordable care.
Click here to access IHA’s digital messaging platform to send a pre-populated message directly to your House Representative and State Senator.
Given that the Veto Session lasts only six days, and bills with an immediate effective date require passage by a supermajority, resolution on some of the more complex and controversial topics may be postponed until January, when the requirement for passing legislation with an immediate effect will revert to a simple majority in both chambers.
CDC Predicts Moderate Flu Season
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)
Season Outlook predicts the upcoming fall and winter respiratory disease season in the U.S. will likely have a similar combined number of peak hospitalizations due to COVID-19, influenza, and RSV compared to last season. The outlook is intended to assist decision-makers with public health preparedness during the winter respiratory season and provide information on when hospitals might experience the most demand due to COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. The CDC will update its outlook every two months throughout the season as warranted by changes in the trajectories of any of the three diseases.
