Page 14 - P4403.59-V50_Numark Magazine April 24

REPAYMENT OF

COVID ADVANCE

As you are aware, community pharmacies in Northern Ireland
are to begin repaying a £35m COVID advance from the
NORTHERN IRELAND
Government from this month onwards.
In a May 10 letter to contractors, the Health and Social Care
Board said the advance, which was given to contractors over
March and April last year as a result of the recognition of
“unprecedented demand for prescriptions” at that time, will be
reclaimed over the next 24 months, beginning with the April
2021 payment, which is paid in May.
For the first six months of the temporary adjustment recovery
schedule, contractors will pay 1/48th of the advance they
received last year, following this, the plan is expected to be for
the Business Services Organisation to claw back 1/24th for the
remaining 21 months with the BSO giving each contractor a
schedule to set out the reclaim.
Extracted from the letter sent to contractors in Northern Ireland,
in summary, the following clawback rates will be introduced:

• Discount Scale 1: Generic medicines (excluding those
granted a concessionary price) – 18.48%
• Discount Scale 2: Appliances – 10.39%

• Discount Scale 3: Branded medicines (plus those medicines
granted a concessionary price, for the month in which the
concessionary price applies) – 5.27%

DoH(NI) will use a phased approach to introduce the new
clawback arrangements using both the new rates (referred to
above) and the existing clawback arrangements on qualifying
medicines and appliances, with the total clawback being
calculated and deducted by BSO according to the following
ratios:

• Jan-Mar’24: 15% using the New rates and 85% using the
Existing clawback arrangements.
• Apr-June’24: 30% New and 70% Existing.
• July-Sept’24: 50% New and 50% Existing.

• Oct-Dec’24: 70% New and 30% Existing.
• Jan-Mar’25: 85% New and 15% Existing.
• April’25 onwards: 100% New and 0% Existing.

This phased approach will be applied to prescriptions dispensed
from January 2024 onwards. Under the new arrangements
the total amount that will be deducted for each pharmacy will
change, by varying amounts, with some pharmacies seeing an
increase in the amount deducted and others seeing a reduction.

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