Dire warnings about growing funding gap

Written by Sonya Felix on December 14, 2009 for CanadianHealthcareNetwork.ca

Just as Ontario’s pharmacists get ready to resume discussions with the provincial government on potential reforms to the drug system, Ontario’s Community Pharmacies (OCPh) warns that the shortfall in direct funding for pharmacy care and services will grow by 22% in the next five years. That will mean that a typical community pharmacy will lose nearly $290,000 or approximately 17% of overall revenues for the average store.

We are a little bit anxious to know what the government is going to put on the table

The projected shortfall is based on the difference between the fee set by the government for pharmacy services and other ODB program beneficiaries and the actual cost to provide services to patients (described as the funding gap) plus a fair return on investment. Ontario’s dispensing fees have increased only 56 cents since 1989 and, since there is no direct funding for most of the health care services they provide, the gap increases year after year.

On Dec. 11, 2009, OCPh expects to hear government’s response to the proposal pharmacy submitted last August with detailed data about the cost to operate and the ability to offer services. So far, the meeting has been postponed twice. “We are a little bit anxious to know what the government is going to put on the table,” says Ben Shenouda, president, Independent Pharmacists of Ontario. “We’ve been negotiating in good faith and we expect them to do the same.”

In the meantime, OCPh, the coalition representing community pharmacy in Ontario, is making the public aware of the situation pharmacy faces. “We’ve had a lot of questions from patients and we believe that it is important for us to explain our position and how funding works,” Shenouda adds.

For pharmacies to be able to continue to provide accessible health care services, it is necessary to maintain current overall funding levels but to shift increasingly away from indirect funding via professional allowances to direct compensation. “Our discussions with government over the last year have focussed on creation and transition to a new framework for defining pharmacy services, and funding those services directly,” Nadine Saby, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores (CACDS) said in OCPh’s press release. “We need to bridge the direct funding gap by reducing reliance on professional allowances and ensuring that fees for dispensing and other health care services reflect the real cost to deliver those services to patients.”

For the original Article, click here