Guild backs pharmacists
January 31, 2012
THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia
has come out swinging after news
stories surfaced claiming pharmacists
are swindling the PBS system.
The reports were sparked by a PBS
audit, which found that almost $2m
in PBS medicines were wrongly
claimed last year, a figure up 50%
compared to the previous year.
According to the reportage,
around 170 pharmacists and
pharmacies were found to have
made wrongful PBS claims last year,
including one Qld pharmacist who
has had to pay back $39,000 after
repeatedly claiming prescriptions
multiple times and also claiming
prescriptions after a patient’s death.
Responding to the claims of
widespread pharmacy fraud, the
Guild said that “in most cases these
pharmacy owners genuinely believe
they have acted in the best interests
of the patient and taxpayers”.
“Many private hospital pharmacies
are affected by this,” said Guild
National President, Kos Sclavos.
“In these circumstances supply of
the medication has actually occurred
and there is an audit trail to prove it.
“Often, the system has broken
down in the administrative process,
with a lag in the timing of
prescriptions being written and
lodged with pharmacies.
“I can think of nothing more
shameful than expecting a pharmacy
to go to relatives of the deceased
patient to ask for the full cost
reimbursement of a supply that has
genuinely occurred, sometimes for
thousands of dollars in the case of
some chemotherapy medicines,” he
added.
Sclavos said that the whilst steps
were being put into place to
address some of these problems in
the nursing home sector, in the form
of a medication chart rather than a
prescription, there is now an urgent
need to address this issue in
relation to hospitals.
“The Guild does not support any
pharmacist involved in any form of
PBS fraud, but in the current
community pharmacy setting
where every prescription can be
monitored real-time through PBS
online it is our belief that systems
are in place to minimise any possible
fraud activity,” Sclavos said.
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