Once again the federal government has decided to take the easy way out. Instead of addressing the lack of accountability in the prescription drug benefit program for eligible status Indians and Inuit, the federal government has decided to reduce the fees it pays pharmacists.

The federal government provides Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) to eligible status Indians and Inuit. Non-insured health benefits include prescription drugs, medical transportation, dental, medical supplies and equipment, vision, crisis intervention counseling, and provincial health care premiums, where applicable.

Expenditures on NIHB pharmacy benefits jumped 142% between 1991-92 and 2001-02 to $253 million. One of the reasons for the increase is the system does not allow for easy tracking of who gets what and how many prescriptions. Thus, prescription drugs can be sold on the street, are subject to abuse and result in huge monetary loss.

In September 2002, the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of the federal government began a consent form program to gather information from eligible status Indians and Inuit who access the medically required health care benefits provided under the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program. The process was required in order to meet federal, provincial and territorial privacy requirements.

Consent would provide the NIHB with the ability to better target benefits; reduce the abuse and misuse of benefits by sharing information with prescribers, providers and clients and to manage the program. In plain language - to provide taxpayers the right to know how the money is spent.

The consent form program was killed due to loud opposition from Indian lobby groups such as the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). The AFN claimed the consent forms would result in the privacy of status Indians and Inuit being jeopardized. What is truly amazing is that consent - sought by NIBH - is required of any Canadian who wishes to receive benefits from his or her health plans.

Since the consent form program failed, the federal government has decided to reduce the cost of pharmacy benefits by targeting the pharmacists. NIHB will no longer pay a mark-up fee for pharmacists and instead will pay a set professional fee of $9.25. This amounts to a 17% decrease in fees - or two dollars per fill - despite the fact native prescriptions require more time and effort to process.

So rather than do the hard work to build accountability into a flawed system, the federal government has decided to pass the proverbial "buck" onto pharmacists. Pharmacists will not be the only ones to be financially impacted; taxpayers will also continue to see their hard earned money wasted in an unaccountable system.