Limited Use Drugs

Members should note that the government has announced that they will release a new drug formulary (No. 39) effective September 27th, 2005, which includes significant changes to the Limited Use (LU) program, as follow:

" Elimination of government mandated LU pad - As of September 27, 2005, physicians need not use the government LU pads. You may, instead, use your regular prescription pad and write in "LU xxx" for drugs on the LU list. This change has been made in response to physician complaints about the burden associated with carrying and using two sets of prescription pads and is intended to help streamline prescribing. Government LU pads may continue to be used until supplies are exhausted for those physicians who wish to do so.

" Extended authorization periods for certain LU drugs -- As of September 27,2005 , about 75 LU drugs will be removed from annual renewal to indefinite expiry. This means that an LU confirmation of eligibility need only be need only be completed once. This represents about half of the LU drugs and deals mainly with drugs used for treating chronic conditions or conditions that do not need to be reconfirmed annually (eg. seizure disorder).

These changes represent a first step in an on-going process as the OMA works with the Drug Programs Branch and the Ontario Pharmacists' Association to improve the LU and Section 8 programs.

Please see "Changes to the Limited Use (LU) Drug Program" for additional information about these changes.