The federal Department of Health and Aged Care has written to aged care homes warning they cannot charge residents for managing their medications if pharmacists increase their fees because of 60-day dispensing.

In its campaign against the dispensing reforms, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said some 118,000 aged residents would be paying $800 a year on average for medicines to be packed and delivered given the financial hit taken by its members.

Condemned at the time as fearmongering, the department says the claim was false and showed a “lack of understanding of the aged care system”.

But with some aged care providers reportedly imposing new fees on residents, both the department and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission have been forced to write to providers telling them additional charges would be illegal.