Reimbursement reforms in 2016/17 and 2017/18
Published on: 21st October 2016 | Updated on: 15th March 2022
On 20th October 2016 the Government imposed a two-year funding package on community pharmacy, with a £113 million reduction in funding in 2016/17.
As part of the changes, the Department of Health (DH) intends to take forward a number of drug reimbursement proposals that it has been in discussion with Community Pharmacy England on for some time and which were agreed as part of the 2014 settlement, but not implemented.
These comprise changes in respect to price setting for Category A products; Concession Prices; Non-Part VIII products; specials; unlicensed oral solid doses and brands cheaper than Category M.
The aims of these changes are to reduce anomalies and manipulation. DH is also considering amendments to the discount scale and changes to the medicine margin survey methodology to identify better where contractors may be retaining margin and allow results to be more reliable during the course of the year.
DH is keen to make progress as quickly as possible but the discount scale changes may be dependent on the outcome of a public consultation which has not yet been initiated. Community Pharmacy England’s policy remains to ensure that reimbursement arrangements are fair and allow the delivery of margin evenly over the year and fairly to contractors.
Funding changes webinar
Community Pharmacy England held a webinar about the funding changes being introduced as part of the 2016/17 and 2017/18 package (which includes a section on the plans for reimbursement reforms) on 9th November 2016; a recorded version of the webinar is now available to watch.
