Will Australians pay for health care advice from a community pharmacist? A video vignette study.

BACKGROUND

Large proportion of Australians have access to pharmacists' health advice at no cost. The impact of a proposed co-payment levy for general practitioner (GP) consultation by Australian government is unclear. This raises an interesting question about consumers' perceived value of health-related consultations.

OBJECTIVE

This survey of representative sample of Western Australians explores the hypothesis that Australians are willing to pay for advanced model of pharmacy consultation.

METHODS

Two videos illustrating current-services and quality-enhanced-service (QES) incorporating systematic assessment of symptoms and referral to GP if necessary, were used. Participants viewed videos online and completed a willingness-to-pay (WTP) questionnaire about their perception and WTP for each service. Logistic regression and McNemar tests were used to identify WTP groups.

RESULTS

Of the 175 respondents, one in nine (19/175, 11%) were willing to pay and (35/175) 20% might consider paying for advice at pharmacies as per current-practice. Almost one in four (49/175, 28%) were willing to pay and (47/175) 27% would consider paying for QES (McNemar Test P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of West Australians may be willing to pay for consultation at pharmacies that offers more private, time-intensive experience with documented GP referral where required. Further research is warranted to test WTP with actual customers to confirm these results.