The argument goes like this: if you reduce the co-payment by $10.00 from $42.50 to $32.50 (Labor quickly offered $12.50) then you are going to prevent the big chains such as Chemist Warehouse applying significant discounts to every script that falls between a cost of $32.50 and $42.50, and that might end up costing the public not saving it. Chemist Warehouse, Ramsay Health Care emerge as unlikely allies Hint: The password should be at least seven characters long. Whether its $22 million or $44 million, the discounting isnt enough to make a great argument for the policy resulting in the cost of scripts increasing overall to the general public if you pull the co-payment down. Contact us on: support@crikey.com.au or call the hotline: +61 (03) 8623 9900. The real price paid for drugs under the co-payment level is the average discounted price, not the reported price on the PBS. Business & Industry Insights A range of reports, tools and resources relating to the community pharmacy industry. She is tipping that in coming years the 5700 pharmacies across Australia will be slashed to about 2000, which will mostly be owned by the large players. Chemist Warehouse makes mockery of government regulation - Financial Review How many any other industries in Australia have had laws implemented that ban new entrants from opening within 1.5 kilometers of an existing business? What was the date of sameul de champlians marriage? Two other significant trends revealed in the latest IAIS report are the increased use of derivatives, up from $US1 trillion in 2010 to $US2 trillion in 2014, and the strong growth in the use of external investment managers. The Chemist Warehouse scale-driven business model, with its controlling pharmacist families as entrepreneurial as any other self-made AFR Rich Listers, makes a mockery of that and the other principle the Guild has spent millions over the years to defend: that only pharmacists can be trusted to own pharmacies and supervise medicine dispensing directly. Chemist Warehouse director Mario Tascone warns about prescription This is what Uber did in Australia. People feel like we are family and they talk to us and we have more time for them." Investments in hedge funds grew from $US6.1 billion to $US16.3 billion from 2005 to 2014. In his formal response in May, however, Health Minister Greg Hunt accepted just a handful of King's 45 recommendations, rejected a handful more but "noted" the rest: in other words, dodging making hard decisions that, thanks to the Guild's fearsome but overblown political reputation, would be defined by Sir Humphrey Appleby as "courageous". "We've got these uni graduates who are well trained and can do more than just provide advice when they handover a box.". Previously, he was a general reporter in Crikey's Sydney office, where he started in 2018 while completing an arts/law degree at the University of Sydney. A pharmacist and a dispensary tech can safely dispense about 30 scripts per hour (one every two minutes). Founded in 1928, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (Guild) is a national employers organisation registered under the Commonwealth's Fair Work Act 2009. That makes the idea that patients are up for a 25% saving of medicines immediately misleading to the general population as this election carrot applies only to a very limited portion of the PBS. EBOS shares rose 7 per cent, adding about $NZ197 million ($181 million) to its market cap. Other sources said negotiations were ongoing. Pharmacy Guild's rapid antigen test finder suffers tech difficulties A Labor minister would have done no differently. Pharmacy The search for yield has also prompted the US insurance industry to move down the risk curve through the purchase of a higher proportion of BBB-rated bonds and a reduction in bonds rated higher than BBB. One Gold Cost pharmacy owner, who wished to remain unnamed for fear of retribution, says the independents are getting hit from all sides from corporate players and the internet. Productivity Commissioner Stephen King looked at the regulation and remuneration of retail and wholesale pharmacy last year. For too long the Pharmacy Guild has got away with its mantra that medicines are not, as it cutely claims, "an ordinary item of commerce". Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. But Health Minister Greg Hunt whose grandmother was a pharmacist accepted just a handful of his 45 recommendations. If the government drops its co-payment level to $30, then of the $136 million in scripts that have a price of between $30 and $42.50 today, only about $22 million is being discounted away. All content on AJP.com.au is restricted to registered users only. The problem here is that neither Chemist Warehouse nor the Pharmacy Guild have the publics wellbeing and hip pocket as their first priority, and are instead looking to advance their own agendas. The pharmacy owner who once owned several shops but now just owns one on the Gold Coast predicted that if Chemist Warehouse eventually pursues a public float, as it has been rumoured for some time, "forget getting any advice for free, you will have to pay". Until 2004, friendly societies were able to own as many chemists as they wanted in Victoria. That is a concern to regulators because of the illiquidity and opaqueness of such investment vehicles. SA - Pharmacy Guild of Australia We recognise that their sovereignty has never been ceded. David Vo: "We have a concern for the customer. The IAIS says this trend has raised concerns among regulators in relation to increased risk taking, the potential mismatch of assets and liabilities, conflicts of interests and the reasonableness of management fees. This content is restricted to registered users only. While its financials are hard to penetrate, the group itself told the 2016 Harper review of competition policy that Chemist Warehouse it is Australia's 13th largest retailer by turnover, with then sales of $2.7 billion and more than 10,000 staff, and those sales make up 20 per cent of total retail pharmacy sales, including 15 per cent of all medicines dispensed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. . The latest estimate of market share for Chemist Warehouse is around 23% with about 300 stores. Bartone, a Melbourne GP, believes pharmacists have pushed into medical services to make up for falling income. His latest investment was up the hill from Clovelly Beach three months ago he bought the only pharmacy in the small Sydney suburb. For that is the way retail pharmacies are treated, backed by the political clout of the Guild's political brawn. Ramsay Health Care has about 40 pharmacies, the bulk of which are in hospitals. Information in the accounts would suggest the numbers could account for roughly half the wider Chemist Warehouse business. FORMER Pharmacy Guild of Australia Communications Director, Greg Turnbull, is joining Chemist Warehouse (CWH) as an independent communications advisor to the discount giant. King was in favour of industry deregulation, including pharmacy ownership and location rules. Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you. The discounting is restricted to drugs sold below the co-payment level set by the government. It offered ride sharing services in defiance of state laws whilst avoiding the restrictive rules and regulations surrounding the taxi industry. To connect a sign in method the email must match the one on your Crikey account. Lets try a sample of one punter myself. [17][18], The company has a radio station called Chemist Warehouse Remix which broadcasts in stores as well as on DAB+ and the iHeartRadio app. The review is chaired by new Productivity Commissioner Stephen King. How co2 is dissolve in cold drink and why? Chemist Warehouse made a submission to the Harper review describing the existing rules as archaic. Until 2004, friendly societies were able to own as many chemists as they wanted in Victoria. Chemist Warehouse financials are opaque. "It's an ongoing stoush with the AMA [Australian Medical Association] but on the ground doctors welcome it because they can't meet the demands," he says. Medical practitioner registered to practice in Australia. But according to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, successive governments over many decades, and federal and state regulators, Chemist Warehouse is a cassowary: a colourful but protected species that survives solely because of government protection. Do they have to give members warning before they bar you? $100 million in savings to patients, against an overall cost base of $12.5 billion, and a campaign promise that was pitched awfully like massive across-the-board savings to your spend on drugs each year, is pretty lame in context, and reasonably misleading on the part of both major parties. Guild stalwart joins CWH | AJP "No matter what a pharmacist says, he or she has virtually never laid hands on a patient by the time they graduate," he says. "We want pharmacists moving out from beyond the dispensary and have health-focused conversations rather than just talk about medicine.". Often these franchisees have a Gance or a Verrocchi as landlord. What are all the people going to do? Help using this website - Accessibility statement, forcing governments to bend to their way of doing business. So be it. It argues that the rules have created a serious capital constraint for the pharmacy industry. Click here to read the full issue of this month's AJP, Non PDL Members Subscribe to the AJP e-mag, Politicians need no qualification for the portfolio Departmental appointments are political Total and utter ignorance seem to be the criteria, Might be interesting to question him on how a business actually works - the economics and the actual financial and, Fiver!! Chemist Warehouse railed against the policy of dropping the co-payment with a concerted media campaign that suggested the policy would reduce their ability to discount on a huge range of medicines, eating into their ability (civic duty even) to provide the public with lower-cost drugs. Which country agreed to give up its claims to the Oregon territory in the Adams-onis treaty? The biggest national brands outside Chemist Warehouse are TerryWhite Chemmart (owned by EBOS), Ramsay Health Care and Priceline Pharmacy (backed by API), Sigma's GuardianPharmacy and Amcal Pharmacy and Blooms The Chemist. Bayer Continuing Medical Education Series, AJP Select Hospital + Consultant Pharmacy, AJP Select: Hospital + Consultant Pharmacy Newsletter Signup, Chemist Warehouse international expansion continues apace, Only the most stable patients will be on 60 day scripts: AMA, Theyre not listening, they think were lying, Affordable Medicines Now a Guild scam: Duckett, Double dispensing may not be as disastrous as portrayed. Vo noted part of his future concerns surround the possibility of Amazon eventually coming to Australia and elbowing its way into the online pharmacy industry. RACGP Having been accused of being an apologist for all those voracious and greedy private equity partners pillaging the financial system, Chanticleer is wary about drawing attention to the latest data from the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). Lets double that to $44 million for no good reason and make a few observations around discounting, actual savings to patients and campaign promises that seem big but are pretty lame in the scheme of things: It all leads to the (not) surprising conclusion that the co-payment promise by both parties was always deliberately designed as an illusion of good value and mostly a waste of everyones time (but fortunately not much money). Pharmacies are low-margin businesses. How did Chemist Warehouse comply with its agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman? Tenner more appropriate I think. In other words, successfully expanding in the face of regulatory restrictions becomes the most powerful argument in favour of deregulation. Chemist Warehouse flexes muscles as independent pharmacists battle