The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is releasing data and analysis on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and welfare issues relevant to Australians.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on both patients and health practitioners in terms of the number of medical services, type of services and the way in which services are delivered.
This report examines the impact of COVID-19 on the:
- Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) by presenting the number of MBS services and Government benefits paid; and
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by presenting the number of prescriptions dispensed and Government benefits paid.
- Cat. no: HPF 65
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There was a spike in PBS scripts dispensed in March 2020 with the volume of scripts 23% higher than in March 2019
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All medicine groups saw an increase in PBS script volume in March 2020, most significantly for respiratory medicines
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COVID-19 had little impact on overall PBS script volumes for 2020 versus 2019
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Explore MBS and PBS quarterly data