DH has just been to the pharmacy and was told that apparantly there is talk that neocate may soon no longer be funded.

Has anyone else heard anything about this? I was surprized to hear they would be taking it away so soon after the full funding has come in.

Oh that really sucks if thats going to happen, hope it does not go thru and stays fully funded

Hi Lulu - having seen your post and doing a quick freakout I've now checked the Pharmac site and if there are any changes afoot they aren't imminent.

Normally if something is soon going to have it's funding changed or switched for another brand then they state that at the bottom of the page on the schedule. Granted all they have up there right now is the December schedule but still no comment there.

I've also checked the Feb update of imminent changes which goes to pharmacists - and nothing there either.

I'd guess it's just rumour - but if they do change it then I'd guess they'd continue to fully fund Elecare and it'll be a matter of costs to Pharmac.

It'd be a disaster for us if they do that though because we really don't have the slack in the budget to start paying $80 a month again but T will NOT drink the Elecare and we've only got him off day tube feeds because he's drinking those instead...

Uhm, what you might find is its more pharmacies passing on the costs to users.. (+ some add a handling/dispensing on top)

the Pharmac funding doesn't actually cover all the cost to the pharmacy if you aren't paying a part charge
- Pharmacs view is some things they pay more than the cost to the pharmacy others they dont so it all evens out the pharmacy end.. our local and alot of others I believe dont see it this way.

(ALOT of pharmacies charge you the surplus already) our local last year was still charging 30$ per month or thereabouts once it had become fully funded.. all the locals(Incl chains such as amcal) charge a fee for it here excepting the Unichem (which is where we now go)..

So you might find it's not actually a Pharmac change. Its an agreeance across the pharmacists guild or whatever its called.
- I know they were going to bring it up at their agm.

Ah thanks Karysta!
So if I'm getting it for nothing now it should stay that way? Barring the $3 script charge once our subsidy card expires at the end of Jan anyway.

Ahh ok, so all the pharmacies belonging to the guild will be charging the fee? Is it about the same price per tin as it used to be? (how many tins were you getting for the $30 per month?)

cheaper than it used to be 4x tins a week so 16 tins for $30

Id say so E some may change and start to charge but hopefully not