Diabetes Management Meters from 1 Feb 18

Pharmacy supply is subsidised and a Brand switch fee

payable, No patient co-payment required.

In response to helpdesk queries around the zero co-payment associated with diabetes

management meters, we are reminding pharmacy of the main points relevant to the

Pharmac announcement in Nov 2017 about Diabetes Management products.

Effects of the decision:

Approximately

3,000 people need to change from their current brand of meter,

15,000 people need to upgrade their current CareSens meter.

There will be a six-month transition period from 1 February 2018 – 31 July 2018 for these people to change brands or upgrade to a newer CareSens meter.

During this period:

Pharmacists will be able to initiate a change of meter for eligible people;

Patients will not need to pay any co-payment for a new meter; and

Pharmacies will be able to claim a Brand Switch Fee when a person changes funded meters.

1 Feb 2018 The funded meters:

CareSens N Premier blood glucose diagnostic test meter (NEW);

CareSens Dual blood glucose and blood ketone meter (NEW)

CareSens N blood glucose diagnostic test meter (EXISTING)

CareSens N POP blood glucose diagnostic test meter (EXISTING)

Eligibility notes: Pharmacists may annotate the prescription as endorsed where there exists a record of prior dispensing of insulin or sulphonylureas. Only 1 meter per patient will be subsidised (no repeat prescriptions).

Patients already using the CareSens N POP meter or CareSens N meter are not eligible for a new meter, unless they meet the criteria for a dual blood glucose and blood ketone diagnostic test meter.

1 Aug 2018 delistings:

CareSens II meter and its associated test strips;

Freestyle Optium meter and its associated test strips; and

Accu-Chek Performa blood glucose test strips.

Processing a pharmacist supplied meter. A pharmacist should select themselves as prescribers,

and press Y when prompted to endorse the Rx. The

prescription will price with a zero co-payment and a

brand switch fee will be dispensed automatically.

The pharmacist record should have Professional group set to ‘Pharmacist’ and the

pharmacist’s registration number entered with a prefix of 00-

Claiming The brand switch fees and meters will automatically be claimed. A

pharmacy copy is needed to file with the hard copy batch for Audit and Compliance.