Page 24 - P4403.59-V52_Numark Magazine June 24 PRNT

PRICE

CONCESSIONS:

How does it all work?

Following on from last month’s Numark Membership magazine,
where we asked colleagues from Community Pharmacy England to

deep dive into the inner workings of Category M, we have invited
them back to share with us a brief insight into concessions. We
thought this would be beneficial following the imposed changes to
the concession mechanism which came into force in April; how they
work and the impact on contractors in the different countries.

Let’s take a look…

How does it all work?

When community pharmacies cannot source a drug at or below the
reimbursement price as set out in the Drug Tariff, the Department of Health
and Social Care (DHSC) can introduce a price concession at the request of
Community Pharmacy England. A price concession can be requested for any
drugs listed in Part VIIIA, Part VIIIB and Part VIIID of the Drug Tariff. For any
drugs granted price concessions, contractors are automatically reimbursed at
the new prices for that month.

Expected process of a price concession throughout
the month

England

In England, for any drugs granted concessionary prices, contractors are
automatically reimbursed at the new prices for that month, with price
concessions being automatically applied to prescriptions submitted for the
month in which they are granted.

However, from April to June 2024, DHSC is revising its approach to price-
setting for concessions. DHSC has confirmed that for this quarter instead
of recovering margin via Category M in the usual way, they will target price
concessions lines i.e. grant lower prices or possibly refuse applications for price
concessions. DHSC is aiming to recover c£5.4m per month through this process.

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