Consumers win from PD
March 21, 2014
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
said media reports that the
price cuts in the latest round
of the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme (PBS) were a result
of the Government stopping
‘overpayments’ to pharmacies was
an “unfair slur on hard-working
pharmacists.”
The reports, featured in the likes
of the Daily Telegraph, say the
government has been paying up
to 80% above the market price to
“chemists” for generic medicines,
but that this would change as of
April.
The Guild said this was incorrect
and misrepresented the role of
pharmacists, who continued to
provide PBS medicines at the best
possible price within a system in
which they had no control over the
PBS price, since it was determined
by the Government.
The majority of prescriptions
dispensed under the PBS were
directly subsidised and therefore
the co-payment was identical
whichever pharmacy supplied the
prescription, the Guild said.
“It is blatantly unfair that the
reputation of these caring health
professionals should be damaged
by false assertions that they have
somehow been ‘overpaid’ by
Government, when in fact they
have been co-operating with the
price disclosure price cuts and have
no capacity whatsoever to vary PBS
prices.”
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