| Community pharmacies will be paid more for dispensing medicines, pharmacies outside the big cities will have their location allowance doubled, patients needing opioid dependency treatment will save hundreds of dollars, and pharmacy medicine stocks will be assured, stated Federal Health Minister Mark Butler.
From 01 Jul, all community pharmacies are being paid more for dispensing PBS medicines, giving the average metropolitan pharmacy more than $41,000 extra per year.
Government payments to community pharmacies have also increased by 7% now, meaning "significant increases in payments for services like dispensing, handling, administration, and infrastructure," said Butler.
The 7% indexation boost to pharmacy payments is nearly double the 3.6% indexation of Medicare rebates that also has taken effect on 01 Jul.
For a standard script for a ready-prepared item, such as atorvastatin, pharmacies will receive an extra $0.85, taking the fee to $12.99 per script.
Butler said that taken across a year, "the financial impact of the increase is significant".
An average pharmacy in the following locations will receive: a major metropolitan area: $41,229.98; a large regional centre: $43,118.72; rural towns: $26,857.00 to $51,746.92; a remote community: $18,742.23; and a very remote community: $12,448.82. More details in today's issue of Pharmacy Daily.
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