IN HIS Budget handed down last night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed the increase of maximum dispensing quantity to 60 days for more than 300 PBS-listed medicines, will be phased in from 01 Sep for stable, chronic health conditions, "cutting the number of visits to a pharmacy and GP each year and saving $1.6b in out-of-pocket costs over four years" (PD breaking news).
The change will save general patients up to $160 a year per medicine if prescribed for 60 days, and concession card holders up to $43.80 per year per medicine, with the move coming on top of the $12.50 decrease in the PBS co-payment for general scripts which became effective on 01 Jan.
A doubling of the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance involves an investment of $79.5m over four years to support the continued operation of around 1,093 pharmacies in regional and rural Australia.
As previously announced, Chalmers also confirmed pharmacies would be funded to deliver vaccines to eligible patients under the National Immunisation Program, with an investment of $114.1m over four years.
In other measures, $3.5b has been allocated towards a tripling of bulk billing incentives for GPs, aiming to encourage doctors to provide free consultations for children, pensioners and concession card holders.
Doctors will also benefit from increases to Medicare rebates and a boost to the Workforce Incentive Payment, as well as a new Medicare item for consultations lasting more than 60 minutes.
The modernisation program for the My Health Record system received a big boost in the Federal Budget, receiving $429m over two years to build a new national repository platform and investment to improve the sharing of pathology and diagnostic imaging data.
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