..Information to Pharmacists
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    Your Monthly E-Magazine
    June, 2002

    Published by Computachem Services

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    NSW Australia

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    KEN STAFFORD

    Consultant Pharmacy Perspective

    A Breakthrough at last?

    "The first of March was a milestone for community pharmacy.
    It was the day when a third party insurer formally accepted there was value in reimbursing its members for professional services provided by pharmacists."
    Jay Hooper, National President of PSA, wrote these words in the May 2002 "Australian Pharmacist" in respect to the Medication Assistance Service (MAS) costs being reimbursed by The Medical Benefit Fund (MBF) as part of its ancillary cover for members.


    At last pharmacists can be remunerated for application of their intellectual input into patient care for something other than the mechanics of dispensing.
    A breakthrough of major proportion, or is it?
    "At last", I thought, "recognition that pharmacists have something important to offer in the field of health care" then I read on.
    MAS is very restricted in the areas where it can be offered and is only available through one private health insurer which in my state covers about one family per pharmacy!
    MAS is unlikely to have a big impact in Western Australia at present but it is a start.
    Let the profession build on this and make every attempt to see that it works.
    The public must be encouraged to use the service at every opportunity (even if it means nailing feet to the floor to keep the customer from rushing off!!!).

    Seriously, pharmacy must market this service effectively if it hopes to overcome the long held opinion that pharmacists' advice has no monetary value.
    We have been giving advice and education away free for so long that it will take a quantum leap in public perception to acknowledge that it has worth.

    I now wait with bated breath to see the response to this initiative in the medical literature.
    Doctors have long held the belief that they, and only they, have the right to advise patients on health matters, even if it relates to medications, where pharmacists are recognised as being the experts.
    Defence of territory seems to bring out the worst in all professions.
    Pharmacy must, in this case, fight strongly for the right to be paid for professional input.
    It is a fight we must win if we are to progress beyond being mere technicians.
    So, all you pharmacists with multitudes of MBF members, go for it so that members of other health funds will pressure them to incorporate MAS into their benefits.

    Pharmacy has the knowledge and expertise to make MAS work.
    New graduates can be a wonderful resource for all us "oldies" in these matters and their training and enthusiasm should be utilised.
    These kids are, in most cases, very good and their ability to impart training and education to customers continues to amaze me.
    I might just see the bright ones as my offspring are both in the top 1 or 2% of their year but I don't think so.
    Please, use them effectively or I can see another avenue for pharmacy's professional advancement being closed to us.
    I have written previously that the argument "I don't have the time or resources for HMR" is not a valid excuse for not trying and this applies just as much to the MAS concept.
    Use it or lose it!

    On another issue, I have been reading with interest the furore in Germany following the advice to consumers from one provincial pharmacy funder that they should, in the interests of saving money, obtain their medications from a Dutch internet pharmacy.
    I look forward with interest to see if the day ever comes when Australians will be advised to get their scripts dispensed by a New Zealand internet pharmacy.
    All in the cause of "saving the PBS".
    You may have noticed on one of the current affairs programmes someone berating greedy pharmacists for causing the PBS costs to blow out!
    "Don't you see, it is the fault of pharmacists (who don't determine what drugs are to be prescribed, what quantity or what cost price applies) that the PBS costs have risen by 20% in the last year?
    Something should be done to stop them."

    Get ready folks, another attack on our profession appears imminent, especially as we will be at the front line when, or if, the new patient contributions come into effect.
    Rotten pharmacists "increasing their dispensing fee" is a comment that is not unlikely to be heard in the near future.
    All is not doom and gloom however, as I finally saw in a letter to the editor someone mentioning the extra 200,000 new concession card holders created in the 2001 budget.
    Maybe, just maybe, this might have something to do with the cost increase in the PBS.

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