July 2022
News
In this issue
| Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net threshold reduction from 1 July 2022 |
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| End of financial year and stocktaking help |
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| Fee changes applicable from 1 July 2022 |
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| Reminder: Services Australia PRODA B2B Device expiry |
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| New tax deductions for pharmacy |
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| Fred in consortium delivering Australian Defence Force eHealth system |
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| This Month's PBS Changes |
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Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net threshold reduction from 1 July 2022
As a cost-of-living measure, the Australian Government is lowering the PBS Safety Net thresholds from 1 July 2022 by the equivalent of 12 fully priced scripts for concession card holders and the equivalent of approximately two fully priced scripts for non-concessional patients.
For concessional patients, the safety net threshold will be lowered from $326.40 to $244.80, an $81.60 reduction for concessional patients. This means when a concession card holder reaches the safety net threshold, after 36 full priced concessional scripts, they will receive PBS medicines at no charge for the rest of the year.
For general patients, the general safety net threshold will reduce from $1,542.10 to $1,457.10, a maximum reduction of $85 for non-concessional patients, which means that after the equivalent of about 34 fully priced general co-payments, general patients pay only the concessional co-payment of $6.80 per PBS script (plus any applicable premiums) for the balance of the year.
For more information, see Reduction of the PBS Safety Net Thresholds – Frequently Asked Questions on the PBS website.
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 including our new Interactive Stocktake Helper.
- Stocktakes (includes a video tutorial about the new Interactive Stocktake Helper).
- Interactive Stocktake Helper
- Stocktake options at a glance
- Reports
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.
Fee changes applicable from 1 July 2022
Fees
The following fees, patient contributions, and Safety Net thresholds apply from 1 July 2022 and are included, where applicable, in prices published in the Schedule.
| Fee Type | Fee | |
|---|---|---|
| Dispensing Fees | Ready-prepared | $7.82 |
| Dangerous drug fee | $4.84 | |
| Extemporaneously-prepared | $9.86 | |
| Allowable additional patient charge* | $4.54 | |
| Additional Fees (for safety net prices) | Ready-prepared | $1.31 |
| Extemporaneously-prepared | $1.68 | |
| Patient Co-payments | General | $42.50 |
| Concessional | $6.80 | |
| Safety Net Thresholds | General | $1457.10 |
| Concessional | $244.80 | |
| Safety Net Card Issue Fee | $10.65 | |
* 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.
Administration, Handling, and Infrastructure (AHI) fees
| Tier 1 | For a maximum quantity of a listed brand with a price to pharmacists less than $100 | $4.32 per dispense* |
| Tier 2 | For a maximum quantity of a listed brand with a price to pharmacists from $100 to $2,000 | $4.32, 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 | $99.32 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 | $7.82 |
| Preparation Fee | $87.07 | |
| Distribution Fee | $28.22 | |
| Diluent Fee | $5.59 | |
| Section 94 Approved Private Hospital Authority | Ready Prepared Dispensing Fee | $7.82 |
| Preparation Fee | $87.07 | |
| Distribution Fee | $28.22 | |
| Diluent Fee | $5.59 | |
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.
Reminder: Services Australia PRODA B2B Device expiry
To avoid disruption to your Services Australia PBS Online claiming, you’ll need to extend your B2B Device in your PRODA account before it expires.
You’ll need to extend your B2B device with PRODA at least every 6 months.
Fred Dispense will warn you of the impending expiry at the following time intervals:
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30 days from expiry
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14 days from expiry
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Every day from 7 days to the expiry day.
For more information on how to do this, refer to: Managing B2B Devices in PRODA - PRODA (Provider Digital Access) on the Services Australia website or call Services Australia on 1800 700 199.
New tax deductions for pharmacy
Tax deductions are now available for small business’ for expenses supporting digital adoption - including portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud based services. Find out more >
Fred in consortium delivering Australian Defence Force eHealth system
Working with a consortium led by Leidos Australia, Fred will deliver the pharmacy solution for the Australian Defence Force’s new digital health system. The new eHealth system will unify patient and clinical information across healthcare settings and stages of care in the ADF community. Read more >
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.
For Highly Specialised Drugs (HSD) items (CAR and non-CAR), please refer to the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits as well as Services Australia to confirm whether the PBS item code for a HSD is eligible to be dispensed and claimed by your pharmacy type.