December 2023
News
In this issue
| Intercode substitution for Morphine Liquid |
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| What's New in Fred Dispense |
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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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Intercode substitution for Morphine Liquid
As denoted in the December 2023 PBS Schedule
Pharmaceutical benefits that have the brand Morphine Sulfate (Hikma) 10 mg/5 mL (2 mg/mL) and Morphine Oral Solution (Martindale Pharma) 10 mg/5 mL may be substituted for pharmaceutical benefits that have the brand Ordine 2 in case of shortage.
Due to the complexity of different pack sizes and achieving accurate DPMQ across all brands, substitution between the following 5 brands will not be available via the usual GS shortcut :
(1) Medical prescriber/nurse prescriber item codes
(2) Dental prescriber item codes
Instead, search and select the brand required when dispensing under these PBS codes
What's New in Fred Dispense
Safety Net 50 Day Rule for 60 Day Prescriptions
The PBS Safety Net interval between 60 Day prescriptions will increase from 20 days to 50 days. The Safety Net interval for 30 Day prescriptions remains at 20 days.
Fred Dispense displays the following notifications if a 60 Day prescription is being dispensed prior to 50 days.
For more information on the 50-day rule and 20-day rules, see PBS Safety Net Early Supply Rules.
Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available 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.
Please refer to the Fred Service Summary for reference.
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DATE |
FRED HELP OFFICE HOURS (AEDT) |
|---|---|
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Saturday 23 December 2023 |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
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Sunday 24 December 2023 (Christmas Eve) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Monday 25 December 2023 (Christmas Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Tuesday 26 December 2023 (Boxing Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Wednesday 27 December 2023 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Thursday 28 December 2023 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Friday 29 December 2023 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Saturday 30 December 2023 (New Year's Eve) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
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Sunday 31 December 2023 |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Monday 1 January 2024 (New Year's Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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From Tuesday 2 January 2024 |
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.