$26m plus revenue lost in tranche one
March 4, 2024
DATA sourced from key pharmacy software partner StrongRoom AI, and commissioned by the protest group CAPS, revealed to Pharmacy Daily that the estimated revenue loss due to the implementation of tranche one of 60-Day Dispensing (60DD) will be at least $26,320,501.
In its sample data that covers 6,000 pharmacies around the country, there was a 16.4% uptake of 60DD in Feb, and a 14.1% uptake during Jan this year.
The uptake percentage has been steadily increasing month-on-month due to delays in uptake by prescribers but also due to a cross-over period where many patients' existing 30-day prescriptions are still valid for a few months before they require a new prescription, explained StrongRoom AI.
The data further showed that while 44.82% of the uptake received no benefit from the policy, the remaining 55.18% did benefit from the 60DD policy change.
This calculation already considered scripts that were not dispensed to patients, such as various doctor's bag items.
The 44.82% who did not benefit from the policy included 20.63% of people who are concession holders who have reached the safety net and, therefore, pay zero dollars, and the 24.19% of those whose scripts were dispensed as private or non-PBS, even though they were originally eligible for the PBS, and so did not benefit from the policy as the pricing of these scripts is not set by the PBS, commented StrongRoom AI.
Tranche two was announced on Fri (PD Fri Breaking News) listing several hundred medicines covering a range of medical conditions that can now be double dispensed in pharmacy.
StrongRoom AI stated there are 112 drugs, out of the 485 unique drugs in the tranche two list, that are already on the TGA medicines shortage list, and an additional 61 drugs that are on the anticipated shortage list. JG
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