The hospital lobby has shown its cards. In December, the American Hospital Association and several safety-net systems filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an effort to block a one-year pilot program created by the Health Resources and Services Administration to test reforms to the 340B drug discount program. They are not afraid that the pilot will fail. They are terrified that it will succeed and expose how much they rake in from a program that was supposed to serve vulnerable patients.

Hospital executives are in a full-blown panic to kill even a temporary attempt to collect data on an alternative method to implement the program. They know the test would expose how they’ve stealthily transformed a well-intentioned discount program into a multibillion-dollar racket. A transparent analysis would lay bare a business model built more on government-mandated margins than on patient care.

The 340B program began with a noble purpose: helping a small number of hospitals continue to provide access to certain prescription drugs for low-income patients. That mission has long since been corrupted. After the Affordable Care Act drastically expanded 340B eligibility in 2010, the program mutated into a lucrative revenue stream for hospitals and pharmacy chains and ballooned in size.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, spending on 340B drugs........

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