Community Drug Schemes and How they Apply to You

The cost of a medicine dispensed to you in your local pharmacy depends on which Community Drug Scheme you use to access your medicines.

 

They include:

 

1. General Medical Services Scheme (i.e. Medical Card Holders) – you receive your medicines free of charge. The pharmacist receives a dispensing fee but no retail mark up*.

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2. Long Term Illness Scheme (LTI) – you receive medicines for specific conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis free of charge. The pharmacist receives a retail mark up and a dispensing fee*.

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3. Drug Payment Scheme (DPS) – you pay a maximum of €120 per month for your medicines. The pharmacist receives both a retail mark up and a dispensing fee*.

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* On the 18th June 2009 the Minister for Health and Children announced reductions on payments to pharmacists under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 to reduce the cost to taxpayers of medicines dispensed under the GMS (medical card), the Drug Payment Scheme, the Long Term Illness Scheme and other community drugs schemes.

 

The following are the precise measures the Minister introduced:

 

(a) re-balance the amounts paid in respect of, on the one hand, the GMS and, on the other hand, the Drugs Payments Scheme, Long Term Illness Scheme and other community drugs schemes, by:

 

  • introducing a new higher dispensing fee structure for the schemes based on a sliding scale as follows: €5 for first 20,000 items, €4.50 for next 10,000 items and €3.50 for the remaining items; and
  • reducing from 50% to 20% the retail mark-up payable under the community drugs schemes (no mark-up is payable under the GMS);

 

In these two measures, the Minister responded to concerns expressed by pharmacists that medical card dispensing was cross-subsidised by the retail mark-ups on the other schemes. This should benefit pharmacies with relatively more medical card patients, for example, those serving poorer areas.

 

(b) reduce the ‘wholesale mark-up’ reimbursement price paid for delivery of drugs to community pharmacies, from 17.66% to 10%.

 

Source: http://www.dohc.ie/press/releases/2009/20090618.html Link Icon