If 13 pharmacies in Otago and Southland do not sign their funding contracts by the end of this month, they will not be paid in April.
That is the message in a report from Otago District Health Board senior planning and funding policy manager Glenn Symon which will be considered by the Otago and Southland community and public health advisory committee meeting tomorrow.
Six pharmacies, run by two providers, have said they will not sign because they cannot "blanket" charge for extra services.
Under the new agreement, pharmacists are able to charge individual patients for a variety of services, including what it costs to have prescriptions corrected, but they are forbidden to spread such costs across all patients with a "blanket" fee.
Pharmacists who want to charge a blanket fee say it is less time-consuming for them and means that all patients pay a little extra rather than some being hit by large charges for things which are outside their control.
They point out that even a relatively simple prescription correction might cost $30.
In an update on progress on the signing of the new pharmacy services agreement which came into effect at the beginning of this month, Mr Symon said 59 of the 72 pharmacies in Otago and Southland had signed.
Six of the 13 outstanding had advised they did not intend to sign, another two in Otago had not responded to requests for updates, and the other five had indicated they were planning to sign, the report said.
While "we are continuing to discuss the issues" there could be some pharmacies which would not have signed by the end of March and all boards had agreed that from April they would not pay against unsigned contracts, he said.
Dunedin pharmacist Don Anderson, who has been charging his customers between 30c and $1.20 a prescription to help pay for work not covered by the $5.30 dispensing fee since 2007, sought public support earlier this year for his stance.
He wants to continue this regime, only charging a specific fee for service if people refuse to pay what he calls his " risk-management fee".
He is on holiday and could not be contacted for comment on the matter on Friday.
There was no increase in the dispensing fee in the new national agreement which expires in August next year.
