Provision of Services Relating to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Price Disclosure

The Department of Health requires the services of an organisation to provide data collection and calculation services for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme price disclosure arrangements.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme began as a limited scheme in 1948, with free medicines for pensioners and a list of 139 ‘life-saving and disease preventing’ medicines free of charge for others in the community.

Today the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme provides timely, reliable and affordable access to necessary medicines for Australians.The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is part of the Commonwealth’s broader National Medicines Policy.

The aim of the National Medicines Policy is to meet medication and related service needs, so that both optimal health outcomes and economic objectives are achieved.

Under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Commonwealth subsidises the cost of Drugs listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for most medical conditions.Most Drugs are dispensed by pharmacists, and used by patients at home.

Price Disclosure arrangements ensure the price that Commonwealth pays for multi-branded medicines more closely reflects the price those medicines are being supplied in the market.

Under the arrangements, suppliers of certain Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme listed brands of medicines are required to advise the Commonwealth of information in relation to supply of their brands for specified data collection periods.The disclosed information is used to work out the price at which their brands are sold.

Price Disclosure operates with:

•six monthly data collection periods;

•a single on-going rolling cycle of 12 months; and

•two regular reduction days each year on 1 April and 1 October.

The provisions for Price Disclosure arrangements are set out in the National Health Act 1953 and National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations 2017.

Data collection and calculation services for Price Disclosure arrangements are currently provided by the Existing Provider selected through an open Tender process undertaken by the Commonwealth in 2010.The Existing Provider is known as the Price Disclosure Data Administrator.

The contract for data collection, storage and calculation services is scheduled to expire on 31 December 2018.The Commonwealth is seeking to engage an independent Service Provider to perform these functions and related services, as well as any new services from 1 January 2019 onwards.