Discount delays free meds
December 21, 2015
INDIVIDUALS and families
with chronic health conditions
requiring a lot of PBS medicines
will find that by utilising the $1.00
discount on their scripts, it could
effectively delay patient access to
free medicines, providing no net
financial benefit to them, according
to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
The Guild said it has produced a
flyer which has been distributed to
member pharmacies spelling out
the effect on patients.
“Concessional patients who take
the $1 discount must still spend the
same total amount during the year
to access free medicines on the
Safety Net,” the flyer states.
“If you take the $1 discount your
access to free medicines will start
later in the year and the length
of time you are eligible for free
medicines will be reduced.”
The Guild campaign follows the
recent Chemist Warehouse (CW)
announcement highlighting a chain-wide
policy of offering the $1.00
discount to all customers, without
alerting them to the safety net
implications.
The discount also effectively
makes local pharmacists contribute
the patient’s cost for a PBS, the
Guild said.
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