The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild) wrote to Health New Zealand (HNZ) last month on behalf of members escalating our significant concerns with HNZ’s approach to the funding of reasonable cost pressure adjustments for community pharmacy in 2024/25.
This followed the Guild’s detailed review of HNZ’s analysis and decision-making for 2024/25 cost pressure funding uplifts, based on our analysis of a seriously delayed Official Information Act request response by HNZ and the government’s fiscal policy settings for Budget 2024 decisions.
“We have found that HNZ’s overall approach to funding cost pressure uplifts in 2024/25 and to the ICPSA National Annual Agreement Review (NAAR) process was flawed”, says Guild Chief Executive Andrew Gaudin.
The review identified key areas that require action before any HNZ decisions are made regarding the price uplift offer for reasonable cost pressure adjustments for community pharmacy for 2025/26. No HNZ pricing offer has yet been made for 2025/26.
“Our review found that HNZ’s cost pressure uplift approach in 2024 did not align with the government’s fiscal policy intentions for cost pressures funding for Budget 2024, and that HNZ did not properly consider reasonable cost pressure adjustments for community pharmacy as required by the ICPSA. We believe that HNZ has also failed to work collaboratively, transparently and in good faith with provider representatives throughout the 2024/25 NAAR process.
“We are determined to avoid a repeat of this approach from HNZ for community pharmacy reasonable cost pressure adjustments for the 2025/26 NAAR process.
“We sought to urgently meet with HNZ to discuss all our review findings and general concerns with the NAAR 2024 process, and requested a written response to our letter.
“Following our further enquiry, we have now received a written response from HNZ, this included a commitment to meet with us to discuss our concerns. We are looking forward to engaging with HNZ to discuss these serious matters next week,” says Mr Gaudin.