Are you taking regular medicines? This advice could save you money

If you use the DPS scheme, you may be interested to hear that it allows for the dispensing of a 13th month of certain medicines in a year. 

Under the DPS, families should not pay more than €80 per month for their certain prescriptions. 

Are you familiar with the Drug Payment Scheme (DPS)? 

It’s a card that entitles you and your family to pay no more than €80 per month for approved prescribed drugs and medicines, CPAP machine rental, and oxygen rental. If you’re an individual of a certain age and want HRT for free, you will need a medical card, or without the medical card, you will need a DPS card.

Anyone living in the Republic of Ireland who intends to stay for at least one year can apply for the DPS, and there is no means test, which is great news. 

The card doesn’t cover just one person; it covers a family, provided everyone is registered with the main cardholder. The cap applies per family per month, not per individual.

While all of this seems straightforward, the machinations of Irish pharmacies can make it a little more complicated. A reader contacted me this week with a DPS problem.

They have a monthly prescription that always exceeds €80. This means that any other prescriptions for themselves or family members dispensed in that month should not be charged. Their prescription is a combination of daily essential tablets and other items.

On September 1, they collected their monthly prescription and were charged €80. They assumed that everything in the prescription package was enough to last them until October 1, but they were wrong.

Contained within the parcel were a number of packages of tablets, which were dispensed for 28 days. This presented a problem because they didn’t have enough to last them to the end of the month, and they returned to the pharmacy to get more of their medication at the end of the month.

The reader ordered their medication two days before their prescription expired, with plenty of time, to be sure they would not run out, and was presented with another bill for €80. Having already paid €80 in September, they challenged the pharmacy, which said the tablets dispensed were actually for October.

However, the prescription they had received still contained another 28 tablets, and they ran out of medication by October 26.

On contacting the pharmacy for another prescription, they were once again charged €80, this time in October, but still wouldn’t have enough medication to last November. Our reader was very unhappy and felt that something didn’t sound right.

The reader is absolutely correct. No DPS cardholder should be charged more than €80 per calendar month. In addition, any cardholder who has been charged more than €80 per month can submit a refund claims form to the HSE to request a refund.

The form is available on their website, and cardholders should include all claim forms and copies of paid invoices or receipts.

I believe the confusion stems from very poor communication on the HSE’s and the pharmacy’s part, combined with standard medicine packaging.

For easier fulfilment, many medicine blister packs come in 28 doses. I’m reliably informed that this is why Irish pharmacies operate on a 28-day month. 

While that doesn’t directly explain why the reader was charged twice for the one month, it does explain why they consistently don’t get enough tablets to last a full calendar month, unless it’s February and not a leap year.

The good news is that the HSE has a workaround. To allow a 28-day dispensing month, the HSE provides a 13th month. The 13th month is free and, crucially, allows for unfilled days in other months.

The 13th month is not always dispensed automatically, plus it appears that some Irish consumers are unaware of the 13th-month rule. 

In some pharmacies, if a DPS cardholder does not explicitly ask the dispensing pharmacist for the free 13th month, they will be charged every time they request their prescription, regardless of whether it is the 13th month or not.

If the customer is charged twice in the same month, the DPS cardholder must claim any overpayment back from the HSE directly and be out of pocket until it’s refunded.

It’s always worth checking your receipts and keeping track of when you collect any prescriptions, especially if you take daily medications. If you’re not clear on why you’ve been charged, ask the pharmacist to explain which month you are paying for.

For those living on a tight budget, having to pay twice in the same month for essential medication that is already covered by the monthly cap is a real hassle. 

Consumers shouldn’t have to become experts in how pharmacies work to make sure they receive their essential medications without paying more than that monthly cap.

As it happens, I also use our family DPS card to the maximum every month. Thanks to looking into the matter for our reader, I’ll request the 13th month when I renew my prescription next month because it’ll save me the hassle of filling out a form and waiting for a refund. 

This column has already saved me €80 this year, and our reader is delighted to also save the same amount.

The lesson here is not to assume that a repeat prescription will cover you for a full calendar month. The money is better in our pockets, that’s for sure.

Now that you know about the DPS card, you should also check if you are entitled to the full Medical Card. You can visit mymedicalcard.ie to check the eligibility calculator.

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The CCPC got in touch last week in relation to the price of shopping bags.

They say that under consumer law, retailers must clearly display prices for items being sold and that the prices should be obvious, clear and on or near the product. 

According to the CCPC, they have been contacted by consumers via their helpline, which has alerted them to this particular issue. As a consequence, they are writing to retailers nationwide to remind them of their legal obligations.

I appreciate that the cost of shopping bags may be low in value. In my opinion, however, more transparency on the part of retailers is a good thing and should be encouraged.