28 May Develop policy options for streamlining the Indigenous Pharmacy Programs
The Department of Health had commissioned several reviews of the Indigenous Pharmacy Programs (IPP), which concluded that the programs had been effective in improving access to medicines for Indigenous people, but that there was scope for reform and refinement. To formulate policy options to streamline the IPPs, the Department engaged HealthConsult to facilitate a series of internal stakeholder workshops, and then a broadly-based consultation program with key stakeholders in the Indigenous health and the pharmacy sectors.
The programs concerned included the Closing the Gap (CTG) PBS co-payment measure and the Section 100 Remote Area Aboriginal Health Services (s100 RAAHS) program.
Our work involved analysing program data and working with stakeholders to design reform options to be considered by Government. The goal was to improve access to medicines for Indigenous people by removing the existing service gaps through expanding patient and prescriber eligibility for the programs. We worked closely with stakeholders to refine the program design and we also modelled the financial impact of the proposed program changes.
The project outcome was a Policy Options Paper which provided the basis for the Department to make changes to the IPPs.