Ontario nursing homes charge millions from pharmacies as ‘bed fees’
But there was no account of how that money was being spent. Senior advocates of Star’s findings said this malpractice was a serious concern.
“What is happening with that money? We have to know. There is no transparency,” said Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly. “It’s the dirty little secret of the industry that homes are requiring pharmacies to pay in order to get a contract.”
This malpractice allowing some pharmacies to have monopoly at some nursing homes has adversely affected 77,000 seniors in Ontario nursing homes.
Pharmacies compete for a share of an annual $370-million pool of public and resident money to supply medicines for ill residents such as blood-thinners, antidepressants and many other drugs to 630 homes, reports said.
Pharmacies had been complying with the demands of the nursing homes to pay between $10 and $70 per resident per month in order to secure their dispensing rights, although not all the nursing homes had been charging fees.
According the reports more than $20 million a year is being paid in Ontario by pharmacies to maintain their contacts with nursing homes.
“Now we have companies getting contracts based on what they can pay instead of what services they provide,” Meadus said.
The pharmacies cover their cost of providing and dispensing drugs to seniors in nursing homes by the taxpayer-funded Ontario Drug Benefit Plan and $2 for each drug dispensed in the first week of every month.
Pharmacies charge more to dispense drugs in nursing homes than to seniors in the community, but provide less service. Nursing homes receive the drugs in couriers in blister packs without any service by the pharmacist to guide the patients on side-effects.
Pharmacy executives had contradicted this argument. When asked how the money was used in nursing homes the responses from pharmacies were “staff education,” “resident programs”, “donations and sponsorships” for conferences and other training and payments toward Wi-Fi systems, reports said.
The largest pharmacies serving long-term-care homes in Ontario include Medical Pharmacies Group, MediSystem (owned by Loblaw), Classic Care (Centric Health) and Rexall.
Even though last year the Ontario government cut each dispensing fee by $1.26, nursing homes had been charging $5.57 per prescription, sources said.
Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care should take measures to free pharmacies from being “held hostage” by the nursing homes, sources said..
Not all pharmacies were asked to pay. Teresa Pitre runs Hogan Pharmacy Partners in Cambridge and serves long-term-care homes that don’t ask for money.
Instead, she signed contracts with several homes in the PeopleCare chain to provide a “highly personalized approach” and sends a registered pharmaceutical technician into each home.
Her company established in each nursing home a bookshelf-sized dispensing machine containing medication such as pain relievers, antibiotics or insulin that residents need on short notice .
“I really wanted our pharmacy to be a partner with homes instead of servicing them and just meeting the requirements,” she said.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
Image: Pharmacy/Wikipedia
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