Page 12 - P4304.1-V96_PS-Magazine-April 2024

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Manufacturer Discount Scheme

(MDS) sign ups

We love manufacturers with discount schemes don’t
we. They offer us a solution to the losses incurred when
clawback is applied to our drug reimbursements from NHS
prescription services. However, the financial benefit is
meaningless to you if you fail to understand the deal and
sign up in the first place. You need to be on this. I learnt from
a rep recently that a fortune is lost on their ever so popular
product simply because dispensaries had failed to sign up
for the rebate scheme. Are you one of those dispensaries?
You have to check all your sign ups, do not just assume you
have the scheme in place because someone probably did
it years ago. Who is responsible for getting the sign ups
completed and for checking the rebates or discounts are
being received? Please check; the assumption that all is in
order is costing Dispensing Practices a fortune each month
and again, this is an avoidable loss.

Your PSUK account manager will give you a sign-up report
but this will only articulate the sign ups through PSUK.
What about Alliance and AAH? Have you checked all the
sign ups with these wholesalers? And have you checked
the expected savings are being received? This might mean
liasing with the accounts department and checking bank
statements for rebates paid directly to bank. All the loose
ends must be tied up here to check you are not missing
a discount and prescribing or purchasing with a financial
expectation which is not being realised.
(BTW, the Pharma company I spoke with indicated there
were in excess of £50k per month of available rebates not
being claimed on potentially discounted lines by DDs simply
because sign ups were not in place!!)

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