$18.3bn deal struck to fund Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, improve indigenous health

The Morrison government will spend an extra $100m over five years on medication management services as part of a landmark deal.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. The government has signed the seventh community pharmacy agreement after more than a year of negotiations.

The Morrison government will spend an additional $100 million over the next five years on medication management services as part of a landmark community pharmacy agreement.

The $18.3 billion deal, which will start on July 1 and last until June 2025, was struck on Thursday night after more than a year of negotiations and will ensure that Australians can access more than 200 million prescriptions each year for medicines subsidised under the PBS.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia president George Tambassis told The Australian the seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement provided certainty and stability for the nation’s 5800 community pharmacies and was an “agreement for the times” amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

“It also, for the first time, really highlights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in terms of what services we can provide to them,” he said. “Rural and remote regional areas will also certainly be looked after.”

“They are often the people that don’t have a doctor in town so those pharmacies need to have some kind of certainty over the next 5 years to employ staff and look after those parts of the population, which they now have.”

Reforms to improve access to medicines for indigenous Australians will also be implemented by expanding the number of people eligible for the Closing the Gap PBS Co-payment measure, which provides free or lower cost medicines to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that have, or are at risk of, chronic disease.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President Associate Professor Chris Freeman said the agreement would deliver increased investment where it is needed most.

Elderly Australians, people with chronic conditions and Australians on concession cards will benefit from the increased investment through simplified and improved Community Pharmacy medication management and adherence programs, such as dose administration aids and medicine checks.

There will be greater transparency for consumers on the cost of their medicines and the government will reduce the level of discretionary fees that can to be charged on medicines priced below the general patient co-payment.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said consumers would continue to have access to cheaper medicines through the continuation of the optional $1 discount on PBS co-payments.

He praised community pharmacies for playing a central role during the recent bushfires and for keeping their doors open to support patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Reforms to pharmaceutical wholesaling and the Community Service Obligation Funding Pool arrangements will ensure pharmaceutical wholesalers can continue to support community pharmacies in providing equitable and timely access to medicines for all Australians, particularly those living outside our major cities," Mr Hunt said in a statement.

“Our government will provide greater funding predictability for the dispensing of PBS medicines by community pharmacies through structural reforms to dispensing remuneration, and risk sharing arrangements to ensure Australians continue to have timely access to safe and affordable medicines for the next five years.