“340B Gave Me Time”: A Healthcare Leader’s Personal Journey Through Cancer and Lifesaving Care

“340B Gave Me Time”: A Healthcare Leader’s Personal Journey Through Cancer and Lifesaving Care

My name is Jim O’Donnell, and I serve as the Executive Director of Pharmacy Services at Kettering Health in the Dayton, Ohio region. In this role, I am responsible for pharmacy services across the entire system, supported by an incredible team of pharmacists, technicians, directors, managers, and clinical leaders. My work is to support them so that together, we can deliver the best possible care to every patient we serve.

When I think about the work I’ve been part of, one of the accomplishments I am most proud of is creating Kettering Health’s Medication Assistance Program. It began with a simple but powerful belief — that no patient should be denied treatment because they cannot afford their medications. 

The program was launched using 340B savings, which provided the initial resources to get started. Over time, it evolved into a system-wide support structure that helps patients in primary care, specialty practices, hospitals, infusion centers, and emergency departments access medications they would not otherwise receive. Since then, we’ve expanded through manufacturer programs, foundations, grants, our repository program, Dispensary of Hope, and continued 340B reinvestment — all for one purpose: to eliminate cost as a barrier to care.

In June 2023, that mission became personal when I was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. Overnight, I went from leading systems of care to depending on them. With the diagnosis came uncertainty, fear, anger, and a new awareness of how fragile time becomes when life changes in a moment. The emotional weight of cancer is something you cannot fully understand until you are the one receiving the call.

My treatment has included six cycles of chemotherapy, quarterly hormone injections, and two separate rounds of radiation therapy, one of which required 21 days of treatment in a row. If Kettering Health did not have a strong oncology program, a program supported by 340B funding, I likely would have needed to travel to Cincinnati or Columbus for treatment. That would have meant long daily trips while exhausted from chemotherapy, physically drained, emotionally raw, and immunocompromised. It would have made a hard experience even harder.

But the bigger barrier isn’t mileage—it’s waiting. Cancer teaches you that waiting is its own suffering. Waiting for pathology results, waiting to begin treatment, and waiting to know whether treatment is working. You feel every hour. You feel every day. Without 340B, more patients will experience longer travel, fewer appointments, and delayed care. And cancer does not give the luxury of delay.

That is why the 340B program matters. It sustains access to care close to home. It supports programs like Medication Assistance — programs built because 340B existed. It prevents treatment deserts. It protects patients from being forced to choose between care and distance, between survival and affordability.

There are public narratives suggesting that hospitals misuse 340B savings or that funds are directed irresponsibly. I have lived the truth. As a healthcare leader and as a patient, I know what 340B makes possible. In our emergency departments, we do not ask about immigration status, income, or documentation. We treat the person in front of us. We heal. That is what 340B supports.

To me, 340B is not a policy debate. It is access. It is proximity. It is time when time matters most. It is a relief in moments of fear. And in many cases, including mine, it is life.

If this story resonates with you, I invite you to stand with the patients, families, and providers whose lives are shaped by the 340B program.

Defend 340B and Strengthen Healthcare Access

The 340B program helps clinics like Ronnah’s deliver lifesaving care, protect rural pharmacies, and keep healthcare accessible for the patients who need it most.

See below for ways you can protect 340B and improve health outcomes in your community: