Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Certain medications listed on the PBS are available only for specific therapeutic indications or to patients meeting specific criteria where the PBAC has deemed that the cost-benefit analysis is favourable only in those indications/patients. These are noted as "restricted benefits" on the Schedule. Medicare Australia places the onus of policing restricted benefits on the prescribers themselves and the pharmacists dispensing (unless the listing is also 'Authority Required'). For example, the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib is listed on the PBS as a restricted benefit for the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Prescribers using celecoxib for other indications are expected to indicate "non-PBS" on the prescription, and/or the pharmacist dispensing the celecoxib should charge the patient the full cost.
Buprenorphine/naloxone
Before the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA), physicians were not allowed to prescribe narcotics to treat opioid dependence. People with narcotic dependence would have to go to registered clinics to receive treatment. With DATA, Suboxone was the first medication approved for office-based treatment for opioid dependence. Suboxone has thus become widely used as a replacement for methadone as it can be prescribed by doctors in their offices, while methadone can only be provided at specialized addiction centers of which there are a limited number, often making access difficult. Some physicians are also leading a movement to begin prescribing it out of the emergency department (ED), as some small studies have shown ED-initiated Suboxone to be effective with patients more likely to remain in addiction treatment compared to those either referred to addiction treatment programs or those receiving just a brief intervention in the department.