July 2020
News
In this issue
| Late Addition: Changes to PBS Online Claiming for Residential Aged Care Claims |
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| Protect your pharmacy from cyber attacks |
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| WEBINAR Dispensing ePrescriptions |
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| Get ready for ePrescribing |
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| Fee changes applicable from 1 July 2020 |
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| End of financial year and stocktaking help |
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| What's new in Fred Dispense? |
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| Is your Pharmacy protected against identity theft? |
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| This Month's PBS Changes |
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| WEBINAR Dispensing ePrescriptions |
|
Late Addition: Changes to PBS Online Claiming for Residential Aged Care Claims
From 1 July 2020, there are additional requirements when transmitting PBS claims to PBS for RACF patients:
- If dispensing from a National Residential Medication Chart (NRMC) – patient category ‘R’ must be transmitted
- Dispensing a non-chart script for a RACF patient – patient category ‘N’ must be transmitted
Refer to the PBS News Article, Changes to PBS Online Claiming for Residential Aged Care Claims, for more details.
Changes have been made to Fred Dispense to accommodate for these new requirements from PBS Online. The appropriate patient category will be assigned automatically during claiming, provided RACFID details are entered in the system.
To enter a RACFID for a nursing home :
- Select List > Nursing Homes.
- Use the Find, Next or Previous buttons to locate the relevant nursing home.
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Enter the RACFID number and Save.
There are no changes to existing claim categories i.e Concession, General, Entitlement, Repat etc.
Protect your pharmacy from cyber attacks
As recently highlighted by the Australian Government, cyber threats are of increasing concern and while these latest attacks were focused on Government and corporate organisations we are seeing attacks on small businesses increase. Small business including pharmacies are often more vulnerable as they haven’t invested in cyber security or it is very basic. Antivirus software and offsite backup are important but they are no longer enough. Fred Protect provides 24/7 ‘real time’ layered protection that includes training, easy-to-follow guides, network monitoring by a security operations centre and a firewall to reduce your pharmacy's risk.
Get a Fred Protect plan to suit your pharmacy now or email us to request someone from our team to contact you to discuss your cyber security.
WEBINAR Dispensing ePrescriptions
If you did not catch our free webinar on 3 June 2020 ‘Dispensing ePrescriptions – How it works now and into the future’, the recording is available for you to watch on demand, as well as short product demonstrations of ePrescriptions being prescribed, dispensed and submitted.
WEBINAR PART A – ePrescription highlights and learnings so far (60min)
WEBINAR PART B – Into the future with MedView Flow: What you need to know (30min)
DEMO - Pharmacist dispensing with Fred Dispense via MedView Flow (dur 4 mins)
Other ePrescription demonstrations
- GP prescribing an ePrescription via Best Practice Software (dur 2 mins)
- Pharmacist dispensing with Fred NXT via MedView Flow (dur 7 mins)
- Patient forwarding an ePrescription with MedView Flow (dur 3.5 mins)
- Pharmacist dispensing forwarded ePrescription in Fred Dispense via MedView Flow (dur 2 mins)
- WhatsApp for pharmacy concept (dur 2 mins)
Get ready for ePrescribing
Visit our ePrescriptions page for the latest information and resources to assist you in preparing your pharmacy for ePrescribing. Key items include:
- MedView Flow is activated in your pharmacy
- Your hardware will be able to receive ePrescriptions and read QR codes:
- You have good cyber security and protection, including up to date Windows 10 operating systems:
Fee changes applicable from 1 July 2020
Discontinuation of the Premium Free Dispensing Incentive
From 1 July 2020, the Premium Free Dispensing Incentive fee will be discontinued.
Fees
The following fees, patient contributions, and Safety Net thresholds apply from 1 July 2020 and are included, where applicable, in prices published in the Schedule.
| Fee Type | Fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Dispensing Fees | Ready-prepared | $7.74 |
| Dangerous drug fee | $4.80 | |
| Extemporaneously-prepared | $9.78 | |
| Allowable additional patient charge* | $4.39 | |
| Additional Fees (for safety net prices) | Ready-prepared | $1.29 |
| Extemporaneously-prepared | $1.66 | |
| Patient Co-payments | General | $41.00 |
| Concessional | $6.60 | |
| Safety Net Thresholds | General | $1486.80 |
| Concessional | $316.80 | |
| Safety Net Card Issue Fee | $10.27 | |
* The allowable additional patient charge is a discretionary charge to general patients if a pharmaceutical item has a dispensed price for maximum quantity less than the general patient co-payment. The pharmacist may charge general patients the allowable additional fee but the fee cannot take the cost of the prescription above the general patient co-payment for the medicine. This fee does not count towards the Safety Net threshold. This fee change (as with the others listed) will be effective on 1 July 2020.
Administration, Handling, and Infrastructure (AHI) fees
| Tier 1 | For a maximum quantity of a listed brand with a price to pharmacists less than $100 | $4.28 per dispense* |
| Tier 2 | For a maximum quantity of a listed brand with a price to pharmacists from $100 to $2,000 | $4.28, plus 5% of the amount by which the price to pharmacists exceeds $100, per dispense* |
| Tier 3 | For a maximum quantity of a listed brand with a price to pharmacists more than $2,000 | $99.28 per dispense* |
* There is no change to the basis of the payment of the total mark-up / AHI (i.e. – in the table above, per dispense means per listed PBS item maximum quantity (MQ) supplied. Fee is calculated from the per pack price with AHI applied for maximum quantity, proportionate to the number of packs required for maximum quantity, and will be adjusted if less or more than the maximum quantity is supplied).
Chemotherapy fees
| Fee Type | Fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Section 90 Community Pharmacy (incl. section 92 approved practitioners) | Ready Prepared Dispensing Fee | $7.74 |
| Preparation Fee | $85.78 | |
| Distribution Fee | $27.45 | |
| Diluent Fee | $5.44 | |
| Section 94 Approved Private Hospital Authority | Ready Prepared Dispensing Fee | $7.74 |
| Preparation Fee | $85.78 | |
| Distribution Fee | $27.45 | |
| Diluent Fee | $5.44 | |
If you have set non-standard fees, check them on the NHS Dispensing Fees and Markup window ([Alt+S] > [N]) after all of the updates have run.
End of financial year and stocktaking help
It's nearly time for End of Financial Year Reporting and Stocktaking. To assist you with these processes, refer to the following Fred Office resources from the Fred Help Centre:
- Fred Office End of Financial Year Report Recommendations
- Fred Office Stocktaking
- Fred Office External Stocktake Provider Procedure
Important reminder for department stocktakes
If you plan to do a department stocktake, make sure that all product items are assigned to a department. Otherwise, items will be missing from your stock count.
How to make sure items are assigned to departments in Fred Office
- Select Reporting > Inventory Reports > Item Pricing Details.
- Click Open Report.
- Select the No Department checkbox and then click Run Report.
- For each product item in the list, assign it to a department:
- Double click an item to display the stock card.
- Select a Department.
- Click Save and Close.
What's new in Fred Dispense?
MedView Flow COM Installer
The July 2020 Program Update to Fred Dispense includes an additional step to install a component that will prepare you for communications with MedView Flow once e-prescribing is activated in Fred Dispense.
For more information, refer to MedView Flow COM Installer.
Changes to Claim Pre-Preparation Report
The following change is only applicable if your pharmacy is activated for ePrescribing.
The Claim Pre-Preparation Report has been updated to make it easier to identify which scripts were dispensed as ePrescriptions. An 'e' now displays to the left of any ePrescriptions in the report.
When you run the Claim Pre-Preparation Report you will be able filter the results to show the relevant scripts for the nominated Claim Period (or Dispense Date Range, if selected). The filter options include:
- A - All Scripts. The image above is an example of a report generated with this option.
- P - Paper Scripts Only.
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E - Electronic Scripts Only.
If you want to see the total number of ePrescriptions dispensed for the selected period, then enter E for Electronic Scripts Only. The bottom of the report shows the total number of ePrescriptions.
For more details on this report, see Claim Pre-Preparation Report.
Is your Pharmacy protected against identity theft?
With electronic prescribing on the horizon, it is more important than ever that pharmacy is on the alert for cybercrime. Identity theft is the last topic Andrew McManus delves into in Fred IT Group's AJP series on cyber safety.
This Month's PBS Changes
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:
Please note that the Government provides this information under embargo to Fred IT Group to enable next month’s PBS changes to be incorporated into your drug file. We have provided this information in this newsletter to prepare you for the changes, maximising patient availability/access and enabling you to adjust your stock accordingly. A condition of the embargo and in the interests of the quality use of medicines is that the information must not be released to the public or otherwise distributed prior to 1 July 2020.