Prescription charge when sub €100

Tipsy Mac

I have a relative with a long term illness and she pays €100 a month for her prescription for various medication each month, now she pays this amount every month regardless of the amount of tablets she needs to get, sometimes she gets a large amount of medication sometimes not too much, depends what her doctor recommends for her. I have noticed that there is no itemised billing on any of the receipts she gets from the pharmacy with her prescription. Now what I want to know is will she have to pay €100 even if the actual cost of medication prescribed was only €20 in one month. Also is it legal for a pharmacy to not disclose on the receipts the actual cost of the prescription ie it should say cost €400, customer pays €100 and HSE cover the rest? Surely not disclosing the actual cost leaves an opportunity for fraud on the Chemist and to some degree the HSEs part.

frodi

Most pharmacy computer systems will only produce a receipt for the cost of the prescription if it is under €100. You would be surprised how just one or two expensive meds can bring it over the €100 mark. Why not just ask the pharmacists how much each individual drug costs. Most will be happy to oblige.

ceegee

The receipt shows the total cost to the patient, ie 100 euro. I'd imagine its to stop people tryin to pass it off to revenue/vhi that they paid over a hundred for their meds.
Your relative only pays 100 if thats what her meds cost. It may be that one particular med is quite dear (>100) and would explain why she always pays that amount even if she only gets a few meds

ceegee

also just to add on the fraud question, anything the pharmacy claims for from the hse must be signed by the patient so they can only claim for what they gave her

Soapy Joe

If and when this pharmacy crisis is over then they will I assume go back to their old pharmacy. They can ask at any time for a breakdown of the bill. It is not fraud. All the info will be transmitted to the HSE.

Kurtosis

The receipt you should sign when having your LTI medication dispensed (the blue form) gives a breakdown of the price of each item you are receiving and a total price.

Joey the lips

Generally people on LTI that are aiming at the 100 euro interval become money savy for example They will ensure that they spend the 100 euro as soon as possible and then get all the medicine free after that. This can occur through a combination of filling 2 expensive perscriptions in one month or getting Feb medicine in January with the big spend.

Also if you are fortunate enough to only require 20 euro's worth of medicine in a month and on long term illness your already in the plus. The thing is you need to keep a record of this cause you could towards the end of the month need your expensive perscription filled due to miscalculation.

I have alwasys found pharmacists helpful in this area. They have even advised me about how to buy to ensure I am spensing the least! Its why I go to the same pharmacy and dont shop around.

I dont think you have much to worry about but these days I can understand the question being asked.

Tipsy Mac

Cheers everyone, thanks for the helpful replies.

tim0ney

If you have a Long Term Illness [diabetes, epilepsy etc - there is a defined list] you would be on the LTI scheme, where meds for that particular illness are free of charge.

I assume you mean the Drugs Payment Scheme, which covers most other patients who don't have a medical card. This is where the monthly charge for a family for one months supply of meds is €100.

If your drugs for the month come to €20, then you only pay €20. If they would have cost €500, you pay €100, and the government pays the rest.

As there is a set list of medicines a pharmacist can choose from on the dispensing computer, all with their own set prices, that cannot be altered, there really isn't any room for fraud by the pharmacist. Pharmacists in general wouldn't be that unscrupulous anyway, although there are always exceptions!