PBS reform to reap $1.1b
May 15, 2013
FIGURES revealed in last night’s
Federal Budget reveal the ongoing
benefits that the government
is reaping from Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme reform, with an
estimated $1.1 billion a year in
annual savings by 2016-17.
A budget update released by the
Pharmacy Guild also confirms that
the aggregate savings from price
disclosure, including the MoU with
Medicines Australia, are estimated
to reach a hefty $4 billion.
“These latest updated price
disclosure figures clearly
demonstrate the very significant
contribution of community
pharmacy and the wider pharmacy
sector to the ongoing sustainability
of the PBS,” the Guild said.
“In fact, the real rate of growth
in pharmaceutical benefits
expenditure is only 2% a year,
despite Australia’s ageing
population, increasing reliance on
medicines and an estimated 6%
annual growth in PBS volumes,”
the update said, with the increases
significantly less than growth in the
overall health system.
Guild Executive Director, David
Quilty, said that as the industry
moves toward the negotiation of
the next Community Pharmacy
Agreement from mid-2015, “the
Guild will continue to remind
the Government and other
stakeholders that community
pharmacy is already delivering very
significant savings to the budget
bottom line”.
MEANWHILE the Pharmaceutical
Society of Australia has welcomed
budget measures including a $16m
increase in funding for bowel
cancer screening.
PSA acting president, Claire
O’Reilly said the society understood
that in the current economic
climate some initiatives it proposed
had not been implemented.
“The health sector has undergone
some cuts but overall the impact
has been reduced as much as
possible by spreading the cuts
across a broad spectrum of
programs,” O’Reilly said.
She noted that the PBS receives
an additional $687 million for new
and amended listings over the next
four years.
AND Medicines Australia said
the budget reflected a recognition
by the government that the MA
MoU “continues to keep the PBS
sustainable”.
“This budget outcome should
also provide the Government
with the confidence that it
can act expeditiously on PBAC
recommendations and provide
Australian patients with timely
access to new medicines,” said MA
ceo Brendan Shaw.
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