The battle between the province and Ontario pharmacies over proposed changes to the prescription drug system seems to be heating up locally.
Joe Walsh said if the provincial government proceeds with its plan, customers at local pharmacies will suffer.
Walsh, the owner of Walsh’s Pharmacy in Arthur, said pharmacy hours will be cut, waiting times could triple, one-on-one consultations could be a thing of the past, prices will rise and customers will have to pay for services currently provided for free.
“Whether you’re 80 days old or 80 years old, this will affect everybody,” Walsh said, adding seniors and those with low incomes will be most affected.
On April 7, provincial Health Minister Deb Matthews announced the Liberal government’s plan to overhaul the Ontario Drug Benefit plan, including cutting generic drug prices by 50% and eliminating the “professional allowance” fees generic manufacturers pay to pharmacies.
Matthews has said the fees simply inflate the price of generic drugs, and removing them will dramatically lower drug costs, particularly for those who do not have a drug plan.
But Ontario Community Pharmacies, a newly-formed coalition, says the fees add up to $750-million a year in funding for about 3,300 Ontario pharmacies and help pay for home deliveries, advice and other services.
That translates into $300,000 per year per pharmacy in lost funding, which Walsh says pharmacies will have to try to make up elsewhere.
“I guarantee you the price you pay at the register for your medicine will be higher,” he said.
However, Perth-Wellington MPP John Wilkinson said nothing could be farther from the truth.
He explained pharmacy owners assured the government years ago that the fees from generic manufacturers would be put towards patient care, but a recent audit showed 70% of those fees were directed towards fringe benefits, bonuses, overhead costs and boosting profits.
“That is completely unacceptable,” Wilkinson said.
The province also said that since 2006, as many as 100 pharmacy owners have failed to disclose any documentation regarding professional allowances, and in the latest reporting period over 650 provided incomplete reports.
What’s worse, provincial officials claim, is audits have found that over the last four years some pharmacies and wholesalers have taken part in a “re-sale scheme,” in which they collected professional allowances several times for the same product. The province is taking legal action against those pharmacies.
Wilkinson called pharmacies “valuable partners in the health care system,” particularly in rural Ontario, but again stressed the fees collected from generic drug manufacturers were not to be used to subsidize retail operations.
Pharmacy owners like Walsh point out Ontario pharmacies offer a number of services for free and that there is no direct government funding at all for the majority of those additional services. If the government proceeds with its plans, Walsh said his pharmacy will also be forced to erase all of its community involvement and to lay off staff members he considers part of his extended family.
“I have no choice in this,” said Walsh. He explained the government’s plans will have a similar affect on independent and chain pharmacies alike.
Shoppers Drug Mart has already cut store hours in the London-area – home of Minister Matthews – to protest the planned changes. And officials with the Rexall drug store chain have stated they will impose a hiring freeze and eliminate summer jobs for students.
But even staff cuts and inconvenience for customers might not be able to save many pharmacies.
“I won’t be in business in three years,” Walsh predicted.
The government’s proposal to reduce generic drug costs includes a new $100-million fund to compensate pharmacies for providing additional patient services such as flu shots. And the government also plans to increase the Ontario Drug Benefit dispensing fee from $7 to $8.
But pharmacies argue the $100-million fund still leaves a $650-million funding shortfall, and even at $8, the dispensing fee does not cover the actual cost of filling a prescription, estimated to be around $14.
“That $1 [dispensing fee increase] is actually a slap in the face by the government,” Walsh said, explaining the dispensing fee has increased just $0.56 over the last two decades.
He added his pharmacy’s maximum portion of the $100-million fund will be $25,000 which, when combined with approximately $11,000 extra made through increased dispensing fees, would still leave his store with an annual funding shortfall of $264,000 per year.
“By the time the $100-million has any chance of making it to my pharmacy, it won’t matter because we’ll be out of business,” he added.
When told at least one pharmacy owner in the Perth-Wellington riding claims he will be forced out of business by the government’s proposed changes to the system, Wilkinson said he would not comment on specific pharmacies.
He noted there are “more pharmacies in Ontario than there are Tim Hortons locations across Canada,” although he did say the situation in rural Ontario is far different than in the province’s large urban centres, where there exists a proliferation of pharmacies.
The $100-million fund should help rural pharmacies in particular, Wilkinson said. The government’s plan also includes what it calls “dedicated funding” to support access to pharmacy services in rural communities and under-serviced areas.
Wilkinson added he always welcomes input from pharmacy owners in his own riding and looks forward to meeting with some of them shortly. Walsh, who said Wilkinson had not responded to several emails, plans to attend the MPP’s breakfast meeting in Mount Forest on April 23 to address the issue.
While Wilkinson and Walsh are clearly on opposite sides of the battle, Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott has spoken out in the legislature in favour of the pharmacies.
“The Minister of Health needs to withdraw her proposals to cut pharmacy services, tone down her rhetoric, and sit down with the pharmacists’ association to seek common ground,” Arnott said last week at Queen’s Park.
“If she doesn’t, many of our independent pharmacies will not survive, and our small towns will the losers.”
Walsh said he has also received “110% support” from his customers, who have sent over 1,000 postcards to the premier’s office and another 1,000 faxes to Wilkinson’s office.
“They’ve just stepped up to the plate,” Walsh said of his customers.
When asked if his office has received any correspondence on the matter, Wilkinson said he has received a lot of calls from constituents who are pleased the government will be cutting the cost of generic drugs in half. He said they are “very happy” to hear the dispensing fee will be increased to help pharmacies and that the new $100-million fund will help those in rural areas.
Wilkinson also noted some of the savings could help get more drugs approved for the Ontario Drug Benefit plan. He concluded by saying his constituents appreciate the government’s efforts to make generic drugs cheaper and more readily available.
The 30-day review period, during which the public is invited to share their input with the government, ends on May 15. Those interested should contact Matthews with their input by that date.
For more information visit News.ontario.ca or stopcuts.ca.
