Picture: ThinkStock Source: news.com.au
PHARMACISTS admit they have been overpaid $194 million a year for chemotherapy drugs, but warn a government plan to claw the cash back could risk lives.
The plan to slash funding for chemotherapy treatment Doxetaxel has again laid bare a huge problem at the heart of the nation's drug subsidy scheme in the fact it is allowing chemists to profit from the taxpayer.
Melbourne University health economist Professor Philip Clarke has estimated the government is paying up to 70 per cent above the market price for all generic drugs and could save $1 billion a year if it better managed the medicine subsidy scheme.
Pharmacists agree that for years they have been overpaid for one chemotherapy treatment, Doxetaxel. As an example, the government gave them $3745 for some doses when the market price is $867.
But a government attempt to claw back that Doxetaxel cash has exposed another looming problem, according to pharmacists, who warn they will not be paid enough to safely prepare these potentially deadly drugs for cancer patients when the cuts kick in from December 1.
Pharmacists who prepare toxic cancer drugs for patients say they have to weigh patients and consider blood test results so they can make up the right dose for each patient so it doesn't kill them. It takes an hour and they claim it costs $177 per dose.
The government is only paying $77 for this service - and pharmacists say they will end up being underpaid $65 million a year.
Chemists say the massive overpayments they have been receiving for the Doxetaxel had been used to cross subsidise this $100 shortfall but that cross subsidy will end on December 1.
Pharmacists can't charge patients the $100 because the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme rules prevent this, health funds have refused to pay the fee and Australian Private Hospitals chief Michael Roff says this means the buck stops at the door of private hospitals.
And the problem is threatening to force the closure of some regional cancer centres from December 1 unless the government agrees to pay chemists a $177 fee to prepare the infusions.
Cancer specialist Dr James Morton says St Andrew's Hospital in Toowoomba which treats 500 cancer patients a month has told him it won't be able to pass on these additional costs to patients and faces closure from December 1.
"Instead of paying $100 in fees for preparing the drug they will be paying $900- $1,000 to have the patient treated in a public hospital," Dr Morton said.
Australian Pharmaceutical Healthcare Systems manager Stuart Giles who runs five pharmacies that prepare cancer medicines says the government was presented with a solution to the problem three years ago but failed to act.
While agreeing the government should cut the price it paid for the medicines the pharmacists said 30 per cent of those $194 million in savings should be put towards lifting the $77 pharmacy preparation fee to $177 to cover the costs of delivering the drug safely.
Mr Giles said the move to slash the price the government pays for medicines to the market price was a `fantastic piece of policy, a good result and we support it".
But he says the government must at the same time pay pharmacists a proper professional fee for preparing the drugs for patients.
With just 8 days before the price cuts take effect Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said "the government is happy to continue to talk to pharmacists about the cost of delivering chemo services, but the cost of the drug itself must come down".
She said patients would face no extra charges as a result of the price cut because under the law hospitals can't charge patients extra for PBS medicines.
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