PHARMACARE 2009

By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy

We now have this and most other articles published in the Parkland Shopper on our Website. Please visit us at www.dcp.ca

The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.

Recently, I had the pleasure of driving up to Ethelbert and speaking at the Ethelbert Credit Union Annual General Meeting. It was held at the Parish Hall next to the Church. By the way, the Church in Ethelbert is a very pretty building. Anyway, I talked about pharmacare in general, and pre-pays in particular. During the excellent lunch put on by the Ethelbert Grad Committee, there were lots of questions. I thought you might have some too.

Pharmacare is a drug benefit program for any Manitoban, regardless of age, and is based on family income. So, everyone in Manitoba is entitled to Pharmacare benefits. Pharmacare is designed to help people pay for their prescription medications if they get expensive. Beginning in April of every year, everyone pays for their prescription medications out of their pocket. They keep paying until they reach their deductible. After a person reaches their deductible, Manitoba Health pays for 100% of their covered medications. Your pharmacare deductible is based on your family income and is between 2.69%-5.79% of your total income as declared on line 150 of your Notice of Assessment .

You will notice I said Manitoba Health will pay for 100% of COVERED medications after someone reaches their Pharmacare Deductible. What does covered mean? A covered medication is one that appears on the Manitoba Drug Formulary. After Health Canada determines a medication is safe and effective, Health Canada approves it for. Then Manitoba Health looks at it and decides if they want to pay for it. If Manitoba Health decides it is willing to pay for a medication, the medication is put on the list of covered medications. That list is called the Manitoba Drug Formulary. Not all medications are on it. New medications can take months or years to get added to the Formulary after they have been approved for use in Canada.
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How do I know what my pharmacare deductible is? If you have applied for pharmacare benefits, every year Manitoba Health will mail you a letter stating your deductible. If you can’t remember if you ever filled out the form to apply for pharmacare benefits, visit your pharmacist. We can call Manitoba Health and ask them if they have a pharmacare application on file for you. Can I pay off my deductible all at once? Funny you should ask! Several years ago the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy had several customers ask that. So we set up a program called a Pharmacare Pre-Pay. If someone wants to pay off their deductible all at once, we let them and we give them a 10% discount. So for example, let's say someone's Pharmacare Deductible was $500. If they paid the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy $450, the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy would get them a $50 credit. Now there would be a $500 credit on the person's account. The person would buy prescripiton medications as usually and just charge them against that credit. At some point down the road, that $500 credit would get used up. However, at $500 of medications filled, they would reach their Pharmacare deductible and Manitoba Health would start paying for their prescriptions.

So why would someone want to Pre-Pay their pharmacare deductible? Well, some people like only paying once. They like to get it all over with. Other people like that if they pre-pay pharmacare deductible at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy, that makes their covered prescription medications cheaper than anywhere else. Let's look at the person with the $500 deductible again. If that person fills their covered prescription medications at a pharmacy in Winnipeg, Brandon, Thompson, or whereever he/she will have to spend $500 until Pharmacare starts paying for their medications. If that same person Pre-Pays their pharmacare deductible at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy, they will only have to spend $450. The Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy will give them a $50 credit which is 10% off.

As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.