January 2017
News
| Season’s Greetings from Fred IT Group |
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| Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours |
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| Fee Changes From 1 January 2017 |
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| End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense |
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| How to Run the End-of-Year Process |
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| When to Run the January Monthly Drug Update |
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| PBS Changes effective January 2017 |
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Season’s Greetings from Fred IT Group
All of us here at Fred would like to wish you and your families a safe and happy Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your continued support throughout 2016! We look forward to continuing to work with you in 2017.
Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available on 1300 731 888 during January.
We suggest that you print out this calendar and display it prominently in your dispensary . This will ensure that all of your staff are aware of the hours they can contact us, should they require support.
| DATE | FRED HELP OFFICE HOURS (AEDT) |
|---|---|
| Saturday 24 December 2016 (Christmas Eve) | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Sunday 25 December 2016 (Christmas Day) | Closed |
| Monday 26 December 2016 (Boxing Day) | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Tuesday 27 December 2016 | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Wednesday 28 December 2016 | 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Thursday 29 December 2016 | 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Friday 30 December 2016 | 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
| Saturday 31 December 2016 (New Year's Eve) | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Sunday 1 January 2017 (New Year's Day) | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Monday 2 January 2017 (New Year's Day public holiday observed) | 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
| From Tuesday 3 January 2017 |
Normal support hours Weekdays: 8:30 AM – 9:00 PM Weekends: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
Fee Changes From 1 January 2017
The following PBS fee changes are effective from 1 January 2017:
| Category | Fees | 2016 | From 1 January 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dispensing fees | Allowable additional patient charge | $4.33 | $4.38 |
| Patient co-payment |
General Concessional |
$38.30 $6.20 |
$38.80 $6.30 |
| Safety Net threshold |
General Concessional |
$1475.70 $372.00 |
$1494.90 $378.00 |
End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense
The end-of-year process must be run at the end of trading on 31 December. This process removes the previous year's Safety Net entitlement details, and prepares a “clean slate” for the new year.
You can either run the process on your last trading day of the year after closing, or before opening on your first trading day of the new year.
Perform your normal monthly backup before you run the end-of-year process.
When you open Fred Dispense on 31 December, a prompt will be displayed to remind you that the end-of-year process needs to be run.
The end of year process will:
- Clear out all Safety Net Concession (CN) and Safety Net (SN) Entitlement script counts and safety net amounts.
- Clear all (CN) & (SN) numbers from patient details.
- Reset all Safety Net figures back to zero and update NHS fees.
- Remove patients marked as deceased from their family links
How to Run the End-of-Year Process
Run the end-of-year process on your main Fred Dispense server. Exit Fred Dispense and ALL other programs on ALL of your computers, so that just the Windows desktop is displayed.
- On your main Fred Dispense server, open Fred Dispense, then click the Activities menu, or press [Alt+A].
- Click End of Year Process.
A prompt is displayed: Generate END OF YEAR Patients Report? - Click Yes.
Fred Dispense generates a report of patient Safety Net numbers for you to review. - When you have reviewed the report, press [Enter].
Fred Dispense gives you the option to print the report.- To print the report, click Yes.
It is not necessary to keep a hard copy of old Safety Net numbers. These are stored against dispensed scripts in Fred Dispense. Printing the report can take several minutes and use a large amount of paper. - To continue without printing, click No.
- To print the report, click Yes.
- A prompt is displayed: Erase Patient Safety Net Concession/Entitlement Numbers Now? Click Yes.
When this process is finished, a prompt is displayed: END OF YEAR Process completed press a key. Press any key to return to the main dispensing screen.
If you run the end-of-year process on 31 December, the new fees, safety net figures, and customer safety net totals will take effect on 1 January.
When to Run the January Monthly Drug Update
The best time to run the first monthly drug update of the new year is immediately before or after running the end-of-year process.
If you do not run the drug update before the end of December, Fred Dispense will remind you to run it at the start of your first trading day in January.
Checking your NHS fees for the new year
NHS fees and markups are updated automatically in your monthly drug update, but we recommend you check your NHS fees table after running the update, to familiarise yourself with the new fees and ensure they have been updated correctly.
- In Fred Dispense, click the Setup menu (or press [Alt+S]).
- Press [N], or click NHS Fees.
Non-standard fees
- If you select No, a blue message reminds you to check and adjust the fees manually.
- If you select Yes, the Drug Update continues with the standard fees.
Find it on the Fred Help Centre
Looking for help with our classic products? The Fred Help Centre has manuals, short documents, video tutorials and news articles.
PBS Changes effective January 2017
For the full Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits, go to the PBS website at http://www.pbs.gov.au/ where you can search the schedule by drug name.
For your convenience, we've also uploaded a printable summary of this month's important PBS changes to this site: