[Scape]

neopundit wrote:

Scape wrote:

neopundit wrote:

Currently the point of contention is whether or not pharmacies are entitled to and 8% markup on both generic and brand name drugs, or just brands.

To be clear are you talking as to how entitlement is doled out under the province or at point of sale to the end user? As far as the end user is concerned if the drug stores want to charge more for any drug they can as it is up to the consumer to decide if they want to pay for it. The government isn't going to stop that.

Under the province, I guess. I'm not sure if you are allowed to mark that up at the point-of-sale, to be honest. Wouldn't that create a bad scenario in a town with only one pharmacy? Couldn't they milk customers, even if it's like a 0.5% hike? I think I read something about the government being pissed off about pharmacies continuing to charge 10%, but I've read an awful lot of uninteresting bullshit tonight, so who knows.

And it's too late to contact my source

That's exactly what would happen. The only way around that is to have another drug store open up across the street. For the most part it is not the far flung stores that are the problem its when there are many in close proximity owned by the same chain that it really becomes a problem because they are creating a huge demand on the supply side of the system to a small area with only a fixed amount of supply via warehouses. That drives up costs that is passed on to the drugs stores that in turn they have to make up for and will not be covered by the province.

[neopundit]

DerbyX wrote:

Loads of good non-partisan stuff here.

...sandwiching 7 pages of chaos.

[DerbyX]

neopundit wrote:

DerbyX wrote:

Loads of good non-partisan stuff here.

...sandwiching 7 pages of chaos.

Welcome to CKA, the best forum on the net!

Its par for the course.

Watch out for the 6th hole watertrap. The alligators bite!

[Regina]

neopundit wrote:

DerbyX wrote:

Loads of good non-partisan stuff here.

...sandwiching 7 pages of chaos.

[Regina]

Scape wrote:

Regina wrote:

As far as the drug selling price goes, that's set by the provincial government and is with pennies in price right across Canada. The only thing a pharmacy can do to make it cheaper is to decrease it dispensing fee to a point lower than it's competitor. There's always an exception but that it the general rule.

The price is set only by the manufacture. Health Canada can assign a DIN, the province can provide criteria for a special authority and how much the max price per unit they will consider a benefit. The pharmacy then can decide how much the total cost will be to the end user and and who will be charged for what.

For example: A drug cost 100$ per pill to make. The province determines that as a partial benefit at $80 and will cover a $10 dispensing fee. The warehouse that supplies the drugstore places a mark up of $10 so the drug store then has to determine what it will charge and the province is always 1st payer. In this case total cost at the pharmacy is $110 not including labour costs. They then charge their dispensing fee and charge for the drug and the province pays them $90. If the client has third party private insurance they would pay for any shortfall the provincial cover would not. If not then the client would be charged the difference and in this case it would be at least $30 but could be as much more as the drug store has free reign to do so.

I'm only speaking about brand drugs here, so I won't confuse matters by adding the generic equation to the mix.

As far as I'm aware in Canada and then provincially a manufacturer applies to sell it's drug in Canada (assuming that health Canada has approved it's safe use based on provided studies) then the government decides how much it will pay for it based on the brand's story of costs. If they don't come to a price agreement, HC recommends it not be covered and it would become one of the drugs you can get but you need to pay cash for. There were a few new MS drugs in the news this week for something similar.

For the most part once they come to an agreed price (which is cheaper than it's counter part in the US) it is sold across Canada for the same price, give or take a few dollars. If you purchased that drug in any other province except Ontario the drug may cost the pharmacy $100 to buy it but they can only sell it for the listed price which is $95 plus their dispensing fee or $6-$10.
Again there are exceptions to all of this but that's loosely what happens. If you think it doesn't really make sense..........you understand it correctly then.

[Scape]

Regina wrote:

As far as I'm aware in Canada and then provincially a manufacturer applies to sell it's drug in Canada (assuming that health Canada has approved it's safe use based on provided studies) then the government decides how much it will pay for it based on the brand's story of costs. If they don't come to a price agreement, HC recommends it not be covered and it would become one of the drugs you can get but you need to pay cash for.

Almost, HC really has little to do with the pricing end of it. Their primary concern is the drug is safe for consumption and then they assign the drug a DIN and the provinces take it from there. The richer the province the more drugs that are covered and some provinces do not even have a drug program yet and are only just now looking in to the idea. related UBC compares cost by province.

So the deeper the pockets the more likely a drug will be covered not necessarily the actual clinical history of the drug. Drugs have been cleared before by HC only to be recalled later because people end up dead as there was never enough testing done to being with.

Regina wrote:

For the most part once they come to an agreed price (which is cheaper than it's counter part in the US) it is sold across Canada for the same price, give or take a few dollars.

Well the cost recommended by the US is taken into account and if the FDA says something is wrong with a drug the effect will ripple up here for the most part but it is not a true reference point more of a guideline and every province still has its own set of rules they will go by 1st.

Regina wrote:

If you think it doesn't really make sense..........you understand it correctly then.

Exactly!