[Ontario] More Pharmacy Cuts!!!

Government recently announced the following:
​​

https://news.ontario.ca/mof/en/2017/05/stronger-healthier-ontario-act-budget-measures-2017.html

The Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) explained it as follows:
​
"Specifically, this provision allows the executive officer to, for a defined period of time, subtract an amount from payments made to pharmacies for supplying a drug benefit.  The purpose of the payment adjustment is to ensure that pharmacy savings previously committed to are achieved."

The OPA further explains:​

My comments now:

​Essentially, the savings above that were promised to the Ontario government were not realized, so the government has decided it will reduce payments to pharmacies until desired savings are achieved. For those of you who are questioning how the government can do this, feel free to read about what's happened to Ontario doctors news.nationalpost.com/tag/ontario-doctors

Fortunately, through OPA's efforts, it appears that these "savings" (payment reductions) will occur over a 24-month period (Sept 2017 to Sept 2019) instead of at once so they don't seem as painfully obvious. However, the OPA acknowledges that the dollar amount in "savings" desired by the government has not been clarified...which should worry every pharmacist and pharmacy owner across Ontario. 

Unfortunately, readers of my blog may remember that when I first posted about the Ontario government's new Children and Youth Pharmacare, pharmacy cuts would be the next thing to be announced...It remains to be seen if this new Pharmacare will improve the economics of our industry.

​-Kenny

You can read the full OPA announcement here: eepurl.com/cPmWV1