Battle lines harden over drug reform plan

“Essentially, pharmacies have been underfunded by the Ontario government for many years,” she said. The cuts add to this.

“Unfortunately, without that funding, we can’t sustain our business model,” Smitham said.

But Eng said she had trouble following that argument because the reforms will still allow pharmacies to charge for professional services, like asthma, pain medication and diabetes counselling and, she believed, bill higher dispensing fees if needed.

© The Guelph Mercury

Keywords: drugs, costs, pricing, pharmacy