Bundling: Could contract design have unintended consequences?
The forthcoming requirement to provide a ‘bundle’ of three clinical services to receive threshold payments could lead to unintended consequences, a new analysis by the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) warns.
Pharmacies will soon be required to provide a ‘bundle’ Pharmacy First, the Hypertension Case-Finding Service, and the Contraception Service to qualify for threshold payments. However, the challenge of providing Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) checks could prove insurmountable for many pharmacies – meaning lost threshold payments and a risk that pharmacies stop providing the Pharmacy First service altogether.