Drugs Payment Scheme & 28 day supplies

Seth Brundle

Under the DPS, there is a max of €80 per household for prescription drugs from a pharmacist. On Jan 3rd, (as I do every 28 days) I got my meds from the pharmacist (which come to about €65). The prescription is sent every 6 months or so directly from the GP and as I understand it, it is a prescription for 6 * 28 days.

These meds ran out on Jan 31st so I went to the chemist again and got more. However, I had to pay the €65 again for these rather than €15 (i.e. €80-€65). I asked the pharmacist why and was told that these were my Feb allocation. I asked why as it was still January and his response was that this is the way as stipulated by the Dept.

Anyhow, when he told me this, I rang the Dept afterwards to check and while the person I was talking to wasn't sure, they did think it was the way.

So what confuses me is that pretty much every year will involve buying an extra months supply. When I throw the renewal dates into Excel, I get this (where orange indicates a month I've to buy two batches) - the first column is the date I start another batch of 28 and the second column would be the month the batch is allocated to (following the pharmacist's logic)...

Am I missing something here? Should the second of the two oranges not be within the monthly cap?

odyssey06

Print this out and bring it to your pharmacist - at some point you are supposed to be due an additional 28-day supply. You should not have pay 13 x €65 in the same year. So there should be 1 month in which you pay €80 for a double issue.

The packaging of some drugs and medicines in ’28 days’ packs appears to be causing difficulties for some Pharmacists when dispensing under the Drugs Payment Scheme. It is a condition of the scheme that no individual or family grouping will pay more than relevant copayment as set out in Regulations, (i.e. co-payment x 12 in a full year). A second co-payment (in the same pharmacy) should only arise when a person is intentionally getting the next month’s supply on the grounds that he/she will be away the following month or for other such reason. To ensure that an individual or family who are dispensed 28 days’ supply each month make no more than 12 payments in a year, once in a 12-month period or periodically throughout the year a further 28-day supply can be given.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/pcrs/contractor-handbooks/pcrs-handbook-for-pharmacists.pdf

Seth Brundle

Thanks for that!