HEALTH Minister Greg Hunt has released the government's response to the controversial King Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation (PD breaking news), with the majority of the recommendations from the report being rejected.
Speaking to delegates at APP, Hunt said his basic principle had been to ensure the ongoing sustainability of pharmacies, with the government already having legislated to remove the five-year "sunset clause" around Location Rules - in contradiction to one of the review's key recommendations.
Machine dispensing was rejected out of hand (see page 3) along with a proposed "tender" system for sourcing of generic pharmaceuticals with Hunt making the point that he didn't want to put in place "new threats or challenges" to pharmacies which make an "immense contribution to community health in Australia".
The government did accept "in principle" a recommendation that funding arrangements for high cost medicines be changed, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration late yesterday confirming the new system would increase consumer access to high cost medicines via community pharmacy, as well as "address the financial risks associated with the payment of large rebates from medicines companies to government".
Consultations will continue to develop technical details of the new payment administration arrangements, with a planned implementation from 01 Jul 2019.
Hunt said no decision had been made about the $1 PBS script discount issue.
During his APP presentation the Minister also made reference to pleasing progress in recent weeks on the national real-time prescription monitoring system concept, and announced a new $3m Pharmacy Trial in South Australian aged care homes.
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