DOH: Senior citizens no longer need a purchase booklet to get discounts on medicines
Purchase booklets are no longer required for senior citizens to get discounts on their medicines.
This comes after Department of Health Secretary Ted Herbosa signed Administrative Order 2024-0017 deleting a previous requirement in the previous DOH AO No. 2010-0032, or the guidelines and mechanisms to implement provisions of the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
In the 2010 document, seniors are required to present the following for a 20% discount: an identification card, doctor's prescription, and purchase slip booklets. However, this provision is now deleted.
The said booklet is distributed by the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs Office and serves to help drug stores monitor the last purchase made for a certain medicine, as per the AO.
For partial filling, the establishment's pharmacist will indicate the quantity filled and the unfilled balance on the prescription instead of the booklet moving forward.
"I am also a senior citizen," Herbosa said in a statement. "I know it is hard to always bring a purchase booklet with you. Seniors need the discount on their medicines, and we must make it easy for them to get that."
He added that the move is also the health department's "gift" to senior citizens.