January Category M & A changes
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced the Part VIIIA prices which will apply to prescriptions from 1st January 2025, but what impact will these changes have?
Category M
Based on Accord’s calculations, the changes equate to a 5.7% decrease across all products in Category M versus reimbursement in October 2024*.
This is a decrease of around £2,384 per quarter – or £795 per month – to the average contractor.
There are 6 new product additions and 10 products removals, with overall number of products remaining steady in recent months.
For our full analysis of these changes, including the top 20 product increases/decreases, you can view ‘Category M – Accord’s Overview’ on our dedicated Category M page.
Category A
New arrangements for the setting of Drug Tariff Category A reimbursement prices were announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in March 2024. The transition to the new arrangements will take place over six financial quarters from April 2024 until July 2025.1
As a result, Category A has seen greater fluctuation in reimbursement recently, for January there are 164 tariff price increases and 256 decreases.
However, with 4 additions and 4 removals, the overall number of products in Category A remains consistent at 422.
For our full analysis of these changes, including the top 30 product increases/decreases, you can view ‘Category A – Accord’s Overview’ here.
* Please note, these are Accord calculations, based on statistical analysis. Our data looks at the value of Category M (tariff list price x market volume). It does not look at retained margin as we do not have visibility of contractor’s purchase pricing to make this calculation.
Reference
1. Changes to Category A price setting process – Community Pharmacy England (cpe.org.uk) Date of access: January 2025
UK-Gen-NP-01519 Date of prep: January 2025
