Pharmacy Daily | PBS Reforms

LAST month’s Federal Budget has again confirmed the significant savings being reaped by taxpayers from ongoing reforms of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The Budget revealed that the PBS will cost $4.5 billion less from 2013-14 to 2016-17 than was expected in last year’s Budget. According to the Medicines Partnership of Australia PBS Scorecard, the amount taken out of the PBS forward estimates over the next three financial years had a larger positive impact on the Budget bottom line over that period than any savings measure in the 2014 Budget. Clearly, PBS Reforms are delivering massive savings. With those savings come significant - and growing - impacts on all parts of the pharmaceutical industry – manufacturers, the supply chain and community pharmacies. The Budget also included a 13 per cent increase in PBS co-payments from 01 Jan 2015, over and above the usual CPI increase – an increase of $0.80 per prescription for patients with a concession card and of $5.00 per prescription for those without a concession card. Safety net thresholds will also increase well above inflation. The most recent study on the impact of sharp co-payment increases concluded that increases in patient contributions particularly impact on concessional patients’ ability to afford medicines. This is an impact that should be of concern to policy makers.

---

The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 03 Jun 14
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 03 Jun 14