Chemist Warehouse $1 pledge
December 14, 2015
Chemist
Warehouse is
making the most
of the marketing
opportunity provided
by the new option
to discount the
PBS customer co-payment,
saying the
move is its “remove
the asterisk moment”
(PD breaking news
Fri).
Effective 01 Jan
2016 Chemist Warehouse has
promised it will apply the full $1
discount permitted at every one of
its stores across Australia.
Chemist Warehouse group
commercial manager, Damien
Gance, said the company can now
“proudly proclaim to discount every
prescription to everyone every
day”.
Last week the Pharmacy Guild’s
Forefront update listed a range
of issues in relation to the copayment,
with a leaflet specially
developed for Concessional Safety
Net patients indicating the impact
of the $1 discount on their access
to the safety net.
While receiving the upfront
benefit of the discount, a
Concessional patient will pay the
same total out-of-pocket amount
for their PBS or RPBS
medicines over the
calendar year to
reach the Safety Net,
said Guild executive
director David Quilty.
“With the amount
that is discounted
not counting towards
the Safety Net, these
patients’ access to
free medicines will
commence later in
the year and will
be for a reduced period of time,”
Quilty wrote.
However Chemist Warehouse’s
Gance noted that discounting
of patient co-payments has
“absolutely no effect on the Safety
Net - discounting or not you need
to spend the exact same amount
of money in a year to qualify, and
anyone who tells you otherwise is
not being entirely truthful”.
The company looks set to
heavily promote its $1 discount
pledge, with new collateral
(pictured) - ironically including
an asterisk noting that the $1
discount is “savings off general and
concessional patient contribution
for PBS scripts”.
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