{"id":153273,"date":"2017-01-28T19:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=153273"},"modified":"2017-01-27T18:19:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T16:19:44","slug":"new-laws-set-max-limit-to-how-much-pharmacies-can-charge-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/153273\/new-laws-set-max-limit-to-how-much-pharmacies-can-charge-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"New laws set max limit to how much pharmacies can charge customers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New laws signed in by the government will now fix an upper limit to the dispensing fees charged by pharmacists.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Health Aaron Motsoeledi officially signed in the new <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.za\/sites\/www.gov.za\/files\/40577_gon48.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">amendment <\/a><\/strong>to the medicines and related substances Act on Friday\u00a0(27 January) with the aim of creating transparency and accountability between pharmacies and its customers.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"hvr\">In South Africa, the provision<\/span> of <span class=\"hvr\">drugs<\/span> or <span class=\"hvr\">medicines<\/span>\u00a0&#8211; as <span class=\"hvr\">set<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">out<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">properly<\/span> on a <span class=\"hvr\">lawful<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">prescription &#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"hvr\">can<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">only<\/span> be <span class=\"hvr\">filled<\/span>\u00a0by a <span class=\"hvr\">registered<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">pharmacist,<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">veterinarian,<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">dentist<\/span> or <span class=\"hvr\">member<\/span> of <span class=\"hvr\">the<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">medical<\/span> <span class=\"hvr\">profession. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"hvr\">As a result, pharmacists have come under incredible public scrutiny over the past few years following claims that many were overcharging for dispensing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0new amendment now prescribes that pharmacists must calculate their dispensing fee as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Where the single exit price of a medicine or scheduled substance is less than R97.06, the dispensing fee <strong>can&#8217;t exceed R9.25 plus 46%<\/strong> of the single exit price in respect of that medicine or scheduled substance;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Where the single exit price of a medicine or scheduled substance is greater than or equal to R97.06 but less than R258.88, the dispensing fee<strong> can&#8217;t\u00a0exceed R22.50 plus 33%<\/strong> of the single exit price in respect of that medicine or scheduled substance;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Where the single exit price of a medicine or scheduled substance is greater than or equal to R258.88 but less than R906.10, the dispensing fee <strong>can&#8217;t\u00a0exceed R69.00 plus 15%<\/strong> of the single exit price in respect of that medicine or scheduled substance;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Where the single exit price of a medicine or scheduled substance is greater than or equal to R906.10, the dispensing fee <strong>can&#8217;t\u00a0exceed R160.00 plus 5%<\/strong> of the single exit price in respect of that medicine or scheduled substance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The dispensing fees charged and single exit prices must be clearly indicated on an invoice to the customer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The above\u00a0prices exclude VAT, with the &#8216;single exit price&#8217; referring to the maximum price that a medicine can be charged at in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The Act further provides that the Minister of Health can adjust the rates on an annual basis provided it meets with the current costs of medicine and current inflation rates.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the new regulations require pharmacists &#8211; by means of a clearly displayed notice in the pharmacy &#8211; to inform members of the public the maximum fee structure used by such pharmacist in order to determine their dispensing fee.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/149815\/medical-aids-are-in-trouble-and-youre-going-to-pay-the-price\/\" target=\"_blank\">Medical aids are in trouble \u2013 and you\u2019re going to pay the price<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New laws signed in by the government will now fix an upper limit to the dispensing fees charged by pharmacists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":149477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-153273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153273"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153303,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153273\/revisions\/153303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}