Ontario to launch public consultation on restricting exclusive deals between pharmacies and health benefit insurers
Ontario to launch public consultation on restricting exclusive deals between pharmacies and health benefit insurers
Its the second such consultation the province has started in the past year on the exclusive deals that have been criticized by some health advocates and industry players
Ontario will launch a public consultation on banning exclusive deals
That measure would essentially ban “closed” preferred provider networks (PPN), in which patients can only get medication reimbursed if it comes from specific pharmacies that have confidential business agreements with their insurance company.
Quebec is currently the only province that bans PPNs.
The networks came into the spotlight in early 2024 after Manulife Financial Corporation and Loblaw announced that patients taking certain specialty drugs would have to buy their medication only from Loblaw-owned pharmacies.
Insurance companies claim closed PPNs will help ordinary people and reduce premiums.
The Ontario College of Pharmacists claims closed PPNs are a potential risk to patients’ health.
Read more about the issue:
https://carleton.ca/ghostmanagement/wp-content/uploads/Brief-PPN-Ontario_QG-FInal.pdf
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/manulife-loblaw-deal-deliver-specialty-drugs-1.7098861
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This is horrible. PPNs are only good for the insurer. Not exactly the same, but when I was going through university in the early aughts, my parent's insurance had some pretty stupid restrictions on medications. I wasn't allowed to see the on-campus medical team to get prescriptions renewed, it HAD to be from my GP, and the prescriptions HAD to be filled within so many kms of my home address. No idea how they handled medical emergencies, but I heard horror stories of classmates being stuck with large prescription bills for a couple inhalers because they couldn't get "home".