Price cuts reap in rewards
August 13, 2012
THE Government is reaping huge
rewards from the April
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
reforms, with the latest data
showing the changes have
produced a large drop in the
average cost to the Government of
PBS prescriptions.
The data comes from the first
month to include the full impact of
the April price reductions, June
2012.
These reductions, according to
the Medicines Partnership Australia,
have seen a $5 drop in the average
cost of prescriptions – falling
from just over $44 to just over $39.
“This is the clearest
demonstration yet of the significant
savings being reaped by the
government through the Expanded
and Accelerated Price Disclosure
program,” the Medicines
Partnership said.
“It is further confirmation that PBS
expenditure is being kept well under
control,” the Partnership added.
Contained within the Medicines
Partnership’s PBS Scorecard for
August, the June 2012 data found
that the volume of prescriptions
recorded in the month was 75%
higher than the same month in
2011, and was 30% higher than any
other month in history.
This remarkable result has however
been downplayed by the Medicines
Partnership, which said that it “is
clearly not a true reflection of
actual dispensing activity in
community pharmacies in June”.
“Detailed analysis of the data
reveals that the Department of
Human Services (DHS, formerly
Medicare Australia) slowed down
their average processing times in
the nine months to April 2012,” the
Partnership said.
“The backlog of pharmacy claims
was rapidly cleared by DHS in May
and June.
“This volatility is likely to have
resulted in 2011-12 financial year
growth being overstated in the
official figures,” the Partnership
added.
MEANWHILE, the Medicines
Partnership has used the data
confusion to argue that the nation
needs to have clear, agreed,
publicly available measures of
volume and price growth in the
PBS, so that Government, industry
and all stakeholders can make
“meaningful comparisons and draw
reliable projections”.
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