Monday, November 19, 2012 • Mark Peters
A STUDY has indicated that many families in this region pay more for prescription medicine than they should.
University of Otago and Victoria University researchers studied data from all Gisborne pharmacies for the period from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006 and found that 40 percent of people and families who presented more than 20 prescriptions in a year — after which the medicine should be free — were still paying for some of them.
The findings highlight the need for an information campaign or a central hub where people’s prescription payments are recorded, say the researchers and pharmacists.
Meanwhile people need to stay with the same pharmacy or present earlier receipts from other pharmacies to show they qualify for free prescriptions.
Victoria University researcher Jackie Cumming says the 40 percent figure is likely an underestimate because the researchers did not have a full year- worth of data.
A total of more than 620,000 dispensings were made to 38,000 Gisborne residents. Researchers then had Pharmac check their findings using its national data set.
“Unfortunately, our study only had data on Gisborne,” says Prof Cumming.
“Pharmac has national data and might be able to see differences by regions but we have not done those analyses.”
Prof Cumming says it is not pharmacies’ fault some people are paying for more prescription medicine than they should. It is the prescription fee system that is the issue.
It would be good to have a national system in place to identify families and automatically count prescriptions, she said.
“Our focus has been on identifying how well the system overall is working and it seems clear that we need more education on this, at the very least.
“It’s important our health policies work in the ways they are meant to and everyone who is meant to benefit from such a system, does so.
“Our research also shows that these types of policies need to be well publicised so people know what they should and should not be paying.”
McLean’s Pharmacy owner Barbara Kennedy says a patient is expected to tell the pharmacy if they had a prescription filled at another pharmacy. Otherwise there is no record of the transaction.
“Most people in Gisborne don’t have to bother because they go to the same pharmacy anyway.”
Some people have complex family structures. Family members might go to different pharmacies to have prescriptions filled.
People sometimes assume pharmacies are linked by computer and that prescription information is immediately transferred, but confidentiality issues mean there is no connection between pharmacies.
Shivnan’s Pharmacy owner Sean Shivnan says part of the problem is that there is no central hub.
“Everyone has a national health index number. It would be a good idea to have a bank for people’s payments, so wherever they went their payment would be recorded.”
David Moore of Moore’s Pharmacy says pharmacists are happy to see customers become exempt from having to pay once they reached their 20 prescriptions. If a customer cannot pay the $3 prescription charge at the time, the pharmacy has to follow it up. Often, the pharmacy bears the loss.
“The assumption is that we pocket that $3 but there is certainly no profit for us. If the customer continues to pay $3 an item, the pharmacy doesn’t keep that money — it goes to the Government.
“The only one who profits from the customers’ continued payments is the Government.”
Barbara Kennedy says Gisborne pharmacists are keen for people to know when they reach their 20 items and face no charge for their medicine.
“If we save a family with five prescriptions from having to pay $15, we feel like Santa Claus.”