Would Ontarians have to pay for expanded vaccines in pharmacies?

Pharmacists in Ontario could soon be getting a further expansion to their scope of practice, allowing them to administer more vaccines—but the proposal to charge patients for these vaccines remains a sticking point.In July of last year, the Ontario government announced it would begin consultations to allow tetanus, diphtheria, pneumococcal and shingles vaccines to be administered by pharmacists. However, the province's proposal would mean patients would have to pay to receive these vaccines at the pharmacy, “pending the consultation and implementation timing.” This is despite the fact that they are free of charge at a family doctor’s office or local public health unit. Vaccines for COVID-19 and the flu are currently free at pharmacies and would remain so under the province’s proposal. “Our expectation would be similar to the COVID vaccine and the flu vaccine, that it would be covered as a publicly available vaccine in terms of patients not having to pay, which would require government to appropriately fund pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to administer,” Justin Bates, CEO of the association, told Pharmacy Practice + Business over the phone.Read: Ontario explores expanding responsibilities for pharmacists, but faces pushback from doctors“It remains to be seen. We're going to negotiate with the ministry for the fair reimbursement. And until there's a formal announcement on how the government's going to proceed, we can't really negotiate yet.”Bates said he expects the final cabinet approval for these new regulations to arrive “later this month,” after which they would be sent to the Ontario College of Pharmacists for review. Another round of consultations with the public would follow before implementation in the fall, he said. “Our expectation would be either a Oct. 1 implementation or possibly a Jan. 1 implementation,” he explained.Bates argues providing the funding to allow pharmacists to offer these vaccines for free is “ultimately a cost savings to government downstream because it avoids other health complications, potentially, where they may present themselves in higher cost parts of the system, like hospitals and urgent care clinics.”He also wants to see vaccination scope of practice for pharmacists further expanded to also include measles and tetanus, particularly given the ongoing outbreaks.“There's a real role for pharmacists and other healthcare providers to play here to educate the public . . . but also to increase access,” he said. “And from a public health perspective, it makes sense to leverage the capacity and expertise of pharmacists who operate in all communities across the province.”

Would Ontarians have to pay for expanded vaccines in pharmacies?

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