January 2024
News
In this issue
| Emergency Arrangements for Continued Dispensing |
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| Fee Changes From 1 January 2024 |
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| Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours |
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| End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense |
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| When to Run the January Monthly Drug Update |
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| This Month's PBS Changes |
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| Running the monthly update for Fred Dispense |
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Emergency Arrangements for Continued Dispensing
Please be advised that Continued Dispensing (Emergency Measure) arrangements will be expanded from 1 January 2024 until 29 February 2024 to improve access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines and assist in managing the demand on the health system during the flooding disaster in Far North Queensland.
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The expanded list includes all Section 85 PBS authority and non-authority items
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This applies to most medicines generally supplied by community pharmacies
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S100 items are NOT to be supplied under these arrangements.
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The normal Continued Dispensing PBS rules apply
The January Fred Dispense drug file has been updated with the expanded list. When dispensing eligible authority items, please remember to use 123 as the authority number and select the ‘A2022CD or other emergency code’ checkbox.
For continued dispensing related queries please refer to the link above. If you have any other questions, refer to Dispense a Continued Dispensing Supply or contact Fred Help.
Fee Changes From 1 January 2024
|
Category |
Fees |
2023 |
From |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dispensing fees |
Allowable additional |
$3.29 |
$3.45 |
|
Patient co-payment |
General Concessional |
$30.00 $7.30 |
$31.60 $7.70 |
|
Safety Net threshold |
General Concessional |
$1563.50 $262.80 |
$1647.90 $277.20 |
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.
|
DATE |
FRED HELP OFFICE HOURS (AEDT) |
|---|---|
|
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) |
|
From Tuesday 2 January 2024 |
Normal support hours |
End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense
The end-of-year process must be run on your last trading day of the year after closing, or before opening on your first trading day of the new year. This process removes the previous year's Safety Net entitlement details, and prepares a “clean slate” for the new year. For details, see End-of-Year Process
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.
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.