BUSINESS MAVERICK: Consumers retain the right to choose their pharmacy

South Africans lucky enough to be members of a medical scheme are increasingly accustomed to being pushed by their scheme to purchase their medicines from a designated service provider , often a select group of pharmacies or courier services arbitrarily selected by medical schemes.

Judge Bernard Ngoepe, who chairs the Appeals Board, supported by two other members of the Board, found that the Council for Medical Schemes’ , decision to stay the process in terms of section 61 of the Medical Schemes Act was irrational and the process should be continued, and finalised. “This issue is fundamental to patient rights,” says Jackie Maimin, CEO of the Independent Community Pharmacy Association . “To pay money to a medical scheme and then be dictated to… particularly when pharmacies are prepared to provide the same service at the same rates is a practice that we are opposed to.”

“We are not against DSPs,” says Maimin. “This is a mechanism designed to ensure the continued viability of medical schemes. What we are concerned about is the exclusion of pharmacies – usually the independent pharmacies that are not in large malls – to bid to become a DSP.” He added: “Life cannot come to a standstill indefinitely in anticipation of a report by an inquiry whose powers, by its very nature, would be limited to making recommendations; that is the nature of inquiries.”

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