THE Federal Government has detailed measures in the 2018-19 Budget which aim to ease the burden on pharmacies stocking high-cost drugs.
Under the improved payment administration arrangements, the Government will continue to negotiate cost-effective prices with manufacturers for medicines with special pricing arrangements.
However rather than paying the list price for medicines to pharmacies and receiving rebates from manufacturers to achieve a lower effective price, the Government will instead pay the effective price direct to the manufacturer.
The change means pharmacies will not have to pay a potentially significant cost to stock the PBS medicine, while total remuneration for wholesalers and pharmacies for stocking and dispensing the medicines involved will not change.
The first phase of the new arrangements will be implemented from 01 Jul 2019 - pbs.gov.au.
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