We don't like disputes either. Some products, by their very nature, tend to generate more disputes than others do. Drugs that are sold as powder for injection often generate disputes. For example, a pharmacy bills us for 5 cc, instead of 1 vial. Medi-Cal's rebate invoice to the manufacturer then shows a quantity of 5, forcing the manufacturer to pay too much in rebates, or to dispute our invoice.
Kits are a frequent source of problems.
For example, a kit might contain 60 capsules of a drug plus an administration device, all contained in a package that is not meant to be opened by the pharmacist. A pharmacist trying to bill for the product won't know if he or she should bill one kit , or 60 capsules. Many of these types of disputes cannot be avoided, but manufacturers will save themselves some rebate headaches if they package products in whole number quantities where feasible. Medi-Cal is taking steps to allow pharmacies to bill for products using fractional quantities, which, we hope, will reduce errors generated by incorrect rounding. However, this change probably will not occur before 2001.