New chemo drug changes
June 17, 2011
THE Health Department has
revealed details of new
arrangements for the prescribing
and dispensing of chemotherapy
medicines, which will come into
effect from 01 December this year.
The govt says the changes will
“achieve greater efficiency” in the
use of the medicines.
Under the new system, prescribers
will write a dose-specific script for
each individual chemotherapy
infusion or injection, with the
prescriptions taking the form of an
order for an amount of a medicine,
generally in milligrams.
Approved suppliers will only be
paid for the “combination of vials
that most cost-efficiently makes the
prescribed patient dose”.
Payments to approved suppliers
will take the form of a series of new
fees, including a preparation fee
and a diluent fee.
Fees will be payable per infusion,
including the distribution or
wholesaler fee, which will replace
the current wholesale mark-up.
Patients will pay no more than a
single co-payment for the entire
duration of a cycle of treatment.
And same day prescribing rules
will not apply to these medicines.
Previously proposed changes to
the dispensing of chemotherapy
medications were strongly opposed
by the industry, and eventually
deferred by the government until
the finalisation last year of the Fifth
Community Pharmacy Agreement.
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