Cat M clawbacks to hit contractors by £833 a month
Business Financial expert calls for PSNC to provide greater certainty to pharmacy businesses after announcement of £10m clawback from April until June
Category M clawbacks are set to soar more than fivefold in April, hitting the average contractor by more than £800 a month, C+D has learned.
There will be monthly clawbacks of £10 million from April until June, PSNC revealed last week (March 11), rising from last quarter's monthly sum of £1.9m.
The fresh round of clawbacks would represent losses of £833 a month for the average contractor, Umesh Modi, partner at accountancy firm Silver Levene, told C+D yesterday (March 19). He stressed that fluctuations of this magnitude could not "carry on year in year out".
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Pharmacy accountant Umesh Modi stressed that fluctuations of this magnitude could not "carry on year in year out" |
 More on category M
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"It is now imperative that PSNC works with the government to reduce large fluctuations and smooth out the monthly payments, giving contractors some degree of assurance and confidence in their business and business plans," Mr Modi argued. He said contractors would be "willing and ready" to invest in their businesses and assume a wider role in the NHS if their funding was more stable. |
Category M clawbacks to fall 60% but still 'painful'PSNC said this quarter's clawbacks would be "kept under review" as it gathered more data on the margins being earned by pharmacies. The negotiating body stressed that it was working to establish a new system that minimised the ups and downs in reimbursement.
"We are working with the Department of Health to revise the systems for adjusting category M prices," said PSNC head of finance Mike Dent. "Our ambition is to move towards a system that offers greater consistency of margin delivery for contractors, avoiding the large cuts in reimbursement prices seen in October for many years."
A full list of April 2014 prices can be found here.
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