Posted by Michael Wonder on 08 Jan 2017
Taste of their own medicine
4 January 2017 - The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is the most disciplined and cashed-up lobby group in the country.
It makes the Australian Medical Association look like a Brownie troop. Now, the Turnbull government is facing a bitter stoush with the guild's machine over millions of dispensing dollars.
At issue is the complex calculation of dispensing fees, mark-ups and other point-of-sale revenue from medicines subsidised by the PBS. PBS remuneration rewards volume: the more medicines dispensed and services provided, the more revenue for pharmacists. When actual volumes fall significantly, thus does dispensing revenue – reportedly an estimated $81 million in the last financial year.
