As part of the Year 4 & 5 funding settlement for community pharmacy, it was agreed that an urgent review of the price concession setting system would take place. Since this announcement, Community Pharmacy England has been working with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to determine improvements to the price concession system.
As part of a package of measures developed to improve the price concession system, the DHSC has implemented a process to roll over certain concessionary prices to the following month.
From May 2023, the roll over process applies to any products where Community Pharmacy England has submitted the request later in the month (on or after the 23rd of the month). However, this process would NOT apply to all price concessions granted on or after the 23rd of the month.
The following price concessions granted in July 2023 have rolled over to August 2023:
Drug
Pack Size
Price concession
Cinnarizine 15mg tablets
84
£5.47
Co-amoxiclav 250mg/125mg tablets
21
£2.69
Co-careldopa 12.5mg/50mg tablets
90
£4.56
Pharmacy owners will be able to see the lines that have rolled over on our price concessions page here. Any rolled over prices can be adjusted upwards if we receive reports from our pharmacies to indicate that suppliers’ selling prices have increased. The review can be requested at any point during the month.
Other price concession system improvements
One of the earlier improvements agreed between Community Pharmacy England and DHSC was that all products granted a concessionary price will be classified as ‘Discount Not Deducted’ for the month(s) in which they are on concession. From 1 April 2023, the following Group Items category was added to Part II of the Drug Tariff for ‘Drugs for which discount is not deducted’:‘Concessionary Price products (applicable only for the dispensing month(s) for which the product is on
concession)‘
Another price concessions system improvement being developed is a ‘retrospective increased payment’ which may apply, when appropriate. Further information regarding this concession ‘top-up’ mechanism will be issued once details are finalised with DHSC.
We are continuing our work with DHSC to seek further improvements to the price concession system.
The post Price concessions rolled over to August 2023 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.