What pricing must remain consistent between child and parent sites?

The requirement for the selling price to remain consistent between child and parent sites is crucial for compliance with the 340B Drug Pricing Program. This program aims to provide safety net providers, such as certain hospitals and clinics, the ability to purchase outpatient drugs at significantly reduced prices.

Maintaining consistent selling prices ensures that the intent of the 340B program is upheld, which is to enable health care organizations to provide more affordable care to underserved populations. If there were significant discrepancies in selling prices between child and parent sites, it could lead to potential misuse of the program's discounts and impact the program's effectiveness.

The other factors, such as drug development costs or purchasing discounts, while relevant to the overall cost management of drugs, do not directly relate to the requirement within the context of the 340B program operations. State regulations may vary and do not enforce consistency on selling prices specifically between child and parent sites in the way that program guidelines do. Therefore, ensuring the selling price's consistency is a key component of compliance and integrity within the 340B framework.