January 2023
News
Thank you for your continued support of Fred throughout 2022 as we celebrated our 30th anniversary of service to Australia’s pharmacists.
Please click below to read a letter to our customers from Paul Naismith, CEO.
In this issue
| Changes to the PBS |
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| Fee Changes From 1 January 2023 |
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| Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours |
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| Reminder: Services Australia PRODA B2B Device expiry |
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| This Month's PBS Changes |
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Changes to the PBS
PBS Co-Payment Reduction
From 1 January 2023, the PBS co-payment for general patients will reduce from $42.50 to $30.00
See Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) | Changes to the PBS to make medicines more affordable for more details.
Increased discounting
From 1 January 2023, pharmacists will be able to provide an increased discount on PBS co-payment prescriptions to general patients on prescriptions with a Commonwealth price between $30.00 and $45.60. This range is referred to as the Increased Discounting Range (IDR).
Information on PBS patient discounts can be found here Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) | For Pharmacists .
In Fred Dispense, this change will be displayed through a new indicator in the F7 screen and Main dispense screen to advise that the item currently selected commonwealth price falls in the IDR range ($30.00-$45.60) and is eligible for discounting.
Main Dispense Screen
When you hover over the blue triangle indicator, you will see the IDR price range and the calculated government price for a single supply.
See PBS Patient Discounts for more information on how to Discount in Fred Dispense.
Closing the Gap (CTG) Program
Patients in the Closing the Gap program won’t pay any more to reach the general PBS Safety Net threshold.
Closing the Gap scripts priced at or above $30.00 will continue to count toward the PBS Safety Net at the 2022 amount of $42.50, rather than at a reduced amount after the co payment is lowered to $30.00.
Concessional patients
Concessional patients won’t be impacted by these changes. The current concessional co-payment amount of $6.80 will increase to $7.30 from 1 January 2023, in line with annual CPI indexation.
Concessional patients are already receiving benefits from reductions to the PBS Safety Net thresholds on 1 July 2022.
PBS Changes Explainer
Click the thumbnail below to see a larger image.
Fee Changes From 1 January 2023
|
Category |
Fees |
2022 |
From 1 January 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dispensing fees |
Allowable additional patient charge |
$4.54 |
$3.29 |
|
Patient co-payment |
General Concessional |
$42.50 $6.80 |
$30.00 $7.30 |
|
Safety Net threshold |
General Concessional |
$1457.10 $244.80 |
$1563.50 $262.80 |
Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available on 1300 731 888 during Christmas and New Year.
We suggest that you print out this calendar and display it prominently in your dispensary during the festive season. This will ensure that all of your staff are aware of the hours they can contact us, should they require support.
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DATE |
FRED HELP OFFICE HOURS (AEDT) |
|---|---|
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Saturday 24 December 2022 (Christmas Eve) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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Sunday 25 December 2022 (Christmas Day) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Monday 26 December 2022 (Boxing Day) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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Tuesday 27 December 2022 (Public Holiday |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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Wednesday 28 December 2022 |
8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Thursday 29 December 2022 |
8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Friday 30 December 2022 |
8:30 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Saturday 31 December 2022 (New Year's Eve) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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Sunday 1 January 2023 (New Year's Day) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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Monday 2 January 2023 (Public Holiday) |
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM |
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From Tuesday 3rd January 2023 |
Normal support hours |
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.
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.