Drug Tariff Alert – April 2022

Every month I read the Drug Tariff preface and have done for most of the past 25 years, Ok its not War and Peace and its not for all, but for dispensing contractors, and most especially for dispensing doctors it really is a must read.

It gives an indication of what is happening in the next month’s Drug Tariff which gives dispensing doctors ample time to react to any changes.

ALERT – in the March Preface there is this innocuous looking line under the “Changes” Section:

ProductPack
Size
Drug Tariff Change
Pioglitazone 15mg / Metformin 850mg tablets56Category C Competact will be:
Category A

Now on its own this doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but when you investigate the data this could have a significant impact on dispensing doctor income.

Using openprescribing.net the data shows us that in the last 12 months this was written generically over 17,500 times and by brand name only about 1,900 times. Meaning that this item is very much written generically and reimbursed at the Category C [brand] NHS list price.

Why does this matter?

Because the reimbursement price is more than likely to change as it will be based on a basket price of supplier list prices from April 1st 2022 and most GP systems will be set up to prescribe generically.

And?

This could mean a significant drop in the reimbursement price.

Which means?

If the prescription is written generically then reimbursement of each pack of the brand will ONLY be reimbursed at the new, possibly lower, Drug Tariff price. Hence for each prescription dispensed the dispensing doctor could be using money.

So, our advice is to run down stock of the original brand in the run up to April 1st and keep an eye out for the new April 2022 Drug Tariff which should be available online 5 days before the 1st of April.

If you need a hand, some help, advice or just a quick chat about anything dispensing related or profit and benchmarking your profitability against your peers, just send me an email via contact@dispensingdoctorexperts.co.uk and lets have a chat on the phone or Zoom over a cup of tea or coffee.