ADDICTS AT RISK AS OTTAWA REDUCES METHADONE FEE

Pharmacists Get 43 Per Cent Less To Dispense Drug

EDMONTON - Downtown pharmacist Dennis Vass has a special client who
comes in daily for his methadone.

But the young native man's plan to wean himself off methadone has been
put in jeopardy by a Health Canada decision to cut the fees Vass is paid
to dispense the methadone.

"It's just really frustrating," said Vass, pharmacist-manager at Value Drug
Mart in Edmonton City Centre, in an interview Wednesday. "There's
no thought for what these people (on methadone) go through. The only
thought is for the cost of the program."

Health Canada's Non Insured Health Benefits Directorate this month
announced that it would pay the same fee across the country to
pharmacists who dispense methadone to status Indians. In the past, the
federal fee varied from province to province.

The problem, says the Canadian Pharmacists Association, is that Ottawa
picked as its one dispensing fee the lowest fee in the country, that of
Saskatchewan.

The new fee will result in a 43-per-cent drop in the fee paid to
Alberta pharmacists, a 50-per-cent drop in Ontario, and an 80-per-cent drop
in British Columbia, the association says.

Many pharmacists are now thinking of dropping out of dispensing
methadone to status Indians because they'll be paid so much less, said
association spokeswoman Debra Yearwood.

Dispensing methadone is a time-consuming and often thankless job, said
Yearwood. The user comes daily for his medication, and the pharmacist
is supposed to observe him taking it. A methadone clientele can
sometimes discourage other customers from coming to a pharmacy, she said.

Peggy Berndt, spokeswoman for the Pharmacists Association of Alberta,
said one Calgary pharmacist estimates he'd lose $2,200 per year per
client if he continues dispensing methadone under the new federal fee
schedule, leaving not even enough to break even.

Any Alberta pharmacist who decides to continue with the lower federal
fee will also find his or her fee cut for dispensing methadone to
seniors and the poor, people covered by Alberta Blue Cross, Berndt
added. Blue Cross has an agreement with pharmacists that the
dispensing fee it pays can't be higher than that of any other
customer.

Pharmacists are now faced with informing these clients that they'll no
longer provide methadone, said Berndt. Yet they're torn because they know
it means the clients will be forced back onto street drugs.

Vass is now struggling with his own decision over his young client.

"Do I reach into my own pocket and subsidize this person for whatever
dollar value it will take, and help this young person get this monkey out
of his life, or not?" he asks.

His client has already reduced his methadone dependence by five per
cent, and hoped to be totally free of it in six to eight months, said
Vass. The young man has a job, but doesn't earn enough to pay for the gap
left by the federal cutback, he said.

Pharmacists aren't rich, Vass said. They can't pick up the slack if the
federal government decides to save money on methadone programs for status
Indians.

Catherine Saunders, spokeswoman for Health Canada, said the government
considers the new dispensing fee to be "fair and reasonable."