These increases although contained to a maximum of 4.8%, in many cases outstripped the Medicine Price List (MPL) applied to generic pricing. An adjustment was made to the MPL prices and distributed to all parties for implementation on 1 March 2016.
The impact of the SEP increase resulted in a number of generic products previously falling within the MPL range, to now be priced outside of the MPL group. Consequently, with no generic available to meet the maximum price the compliance to MPL adherence diminished considerably impacting on many pharmacies.
The February Compliance Reports may have reflected disturbing results compared to your normal performance. However, please be advised that the introduction of the updated MPL pricing will normalise the situation which should be reflected in your compliance reports for the subsequent month.