Pharmacy Daily | Give pharmacists MBS funding: PSA

PHARMACISTS should be given access to Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) service payments to ensure pharmacy-based immunisation services remain viable, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) believes.

In its pre-Budget submission, the PBS has urged Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to launch an MBS payment to pharmacists for administering National Immunisation Program (NIP) vaccinations, warning that current rates paid to pharmacies for providing COVID-19 shots are insufficient.

"Currently, pharmacists receive far lower rates of remuneration for assessing the suitability [of patients] and administering COVID-19 vaccines than other immunisation providers such as GPs," the PSA said.

"These low rates of remuneration, particularly in relation to paediatric vaccinations, make vaccination services unviable for many community pharmacies.

"Introducing a single MBS service payment to pharmacists for assessing suitability and administering vaccinations funded through the NIP will ensure that vaccines such as COVID-19 and influenza remain viable through community pharmacy."

The PSA also called for pharmacists to be paid for their participation in multidisciplinary care conferences through the MBS.

"Despite playing a key role in medicine safety, pharmacists remain the only allied health providers who are not remunerated for their participation in case conferences," the PSA noted.

"Ensuring pharmacists' eligibility for case conferencing payments is crucial to connect GPs, pharmacists and the broader multidisciplinary team."

PSA National President, Associate Professor Chris Freeman, added that Federal Government funding is needed to embed pharmacists in residential aged care facilities, to improve medication management and reduce medication-related harm.

"This will ensure that aged care facilities can consistently deliver a patient-centred, multidisciplinary service aimed at identifying, resolving and preventing medication-related problems such as polypharmacy and chemical restraint," he said.

"Every day that a pharmacist is not working alongside aged care staff in caring for older Australians, is a day residents are in danger from medication harm."