News and Alerts
For your convenience, this section includes a summary of this month's important 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 Highly Specialised Drugs (HSD) items (CAR and non-CAR), 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.
- 23 March 2026: 2026 National Customer Experience survey
We'd love your feedback on your experience using Fred—including any recent interactions with our team. The confidential survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete and is designed to capture what is most important to you and your business when working with our products and services.
Start the 2026 National Customer Experience Survey
The survey along with a chance to Win a $500 Visa Gift Card is open to all members of your pharmacy team.
- 23 February 2026: See what's new at APP2026
Visit the Fred & MedView teams on stands 124-127
See live demos of our new integrated solutions to elevate your pharmacy workflow and customer experience.
Fred HQ Plus - the cloud-based solution to simplify multi-store pharmacy management.
MedView Smart Shelf - our advanced Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) solution for Fred Office Plus to deliver accurate, always-on pricing and faster changeovers.
Worx - Integrating directly into Fred Dispense Plus via the AppBar, Worx will keep your dispensary team on track with real-time triaging, prioritisation, and visibility of workload, wait times, and script status.
Attend our session
Thursday 12 March | 2.00-2.45pm | Arena 1A
Enhancing medicines safety and pharmacist scope through AI and comprehensive patient histories
Paul Naismith - Founder and CEO, Fred IT Group
Jason Bratuskins - Product Manager, eRx Script Exchange & National Prescription Delivery Service, Fred IT Group
With prescribing rights expanding and scope of practice evolving, pharmacy technology is becoming critical to safer, more accessible care. This session explores how integrated, cloud-based systems, real-time Patient Medicine History platforms, and AI are transforming community pharmacy—streamlining workflows, reducing manual tasks, and enabling pharmacists to focus on clinical decision-making and improved patient outcomes.
- 12 January 2026: Fee Changes from 1 January 2026
Category Fees 2025 From1 January 2026 Dispensing fees Allowable additional patient charge $3.45 $2.79 Patient co-payment General
Concessional
$31.60
$7.70
$25.00
$7.70
Safety Net threshold General
Concessional
$1694.00
$277.20
$1748.20
$277.20
The following discounting rules will take effect from 1 Jan 2026.
For more information on the changes to the allowable discount, see Freeze on PBS patient co-payments and removal of allowable discount - 2026 update in the Fred Help Portal.Category 2025 From 1 January 2026 Allowable discount General $0.10 $0.00 Concessional $0.80 $0.60 - 17 December 2025: Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available during Christmas and New Year.
Happy Holidays! 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) Monday 22 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tuesday 23 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Wednesday 24 December 2025 (Christmas Eve)
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Thursday 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Saturday 27 December 2025
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday 28 December 2025
8:00 AM –6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Monday 29 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tuesday 30 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Wednesday 31 January 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Thursday 1 January 2026 (New Year's Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only
From Friday 2 January 2026 Normal support hours - 17 December 2025: Discover the Latest Workflow and Multistore Solutions
Check out the latest Fred & MedView solution offerings now operating in pharmacies across Australia
- 17 December 2025: PBS Changes and Fee Changes January 2026
The PBS Summary of Changes and the Fee Changes from January 2026 will be available from the Fred Help Portal on 1 January 2026.
- 10 December 2025: Emergency Arrangements for Continued Dispensing
From 10 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, a temporary PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure has been put in place to support people affected by the flooding disaster in New South Wales to continue to access their PBS subsidised medicines.
This PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure will support access to a wider range of PBS medicines than under ongoing Continued Dispensing arrangements, covering most medicines on the General Schedule of the PBS. For further information, please see the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Continued Dispensing Arrangements webpage.
The 2 December 2025 Fred Dispense Plus drug file has been updated with the expanded list. When dispensing eligible authority items, please remember to use 123 as the authority number and enter A1225CD in the steamlined code/phone approval number field.
- 1 December 2025: PBS Changes - December 2025
- 24 November 2025: Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available during Christmas and New Year.
Happy Holidays! 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) Monday 22 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tuesday 23 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Wednesday 24 December 2025 (Christmas Eve)
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Thursday 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Saturday 27 December 2025
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday 28 December 2025
8:00 AM –6:00 PM (Emergencies Only)
Monday 29 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tuesday 30 December 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Wednesday 31 January 2025
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Thursday 1 January 2026 (New Year's Day)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only
From Friday 2 January 2026 Normal support hours
- 23 June 2025: Catch up with the Fred Team this August in Sydney and Perth
- 3 June 2025: Say hello to AIFred...our new customer service chatbot
Your new Fred virtual assistant is now live and ready to help you get quick answers, troubleshoot issues, and guide you to the right place.
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Access support anytime, anywhere, even outside of regular business hours.
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Get immediate answers to your queries without waiting in a queue.
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Benefit from help tailored to your needs or routing to the correct support team.
Visit the Fred Help Portal to chat with AIFred today!
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- 26 May 2025: Update to Continued Dispensing Arrangements - Emergency Measures
From 23 May 2025 to 30 June 2025, a temporary PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure has been put in place to support people affected by the flooding disaster in New South Wales to continue to access their PBS subsidised medicines.
This PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure will support access to a wider range of PBS medicines than under ongoing Continued Dispensing arrangements, covering most medicines on the General Schedule of the PBS. For further information, please see the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Continued Dispensing Arrangements webpage.
The 1 June 2025 Fred Dispense Plus drug file has been updated with the expanded list. When dispensing eligible authority items, please remember to use 123 as the authority number and enter A2025CD in the steamlined code/phone approval number field.
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.
- 3 March 2025: Yaz and Yasmin PBS Listed from 1 March 2025
Yaz and Yasmin are listed on PBS from 1st March 2025. Patients will need to obtain a new prescription from their prescribers to access the PBS subsidised price.
Please see PBS news https://www.pbs.gov.au/info/news/2025/03/pbs-item-supply-for-formerly-private_prescription-items
- 20 February 2025 See you at APP!
Come visit the Fred and MedView teams at APP next month to see what’s new in the world of pharmacy IT. Discover new partner integrations and offers. Get hands-on with MedView Digital Baskets. If you’re interested in improving your pharmacy’s efficiency, we’ve got the IT innovations to help.
Find us on stands 124-127 inside the main exhibition hall.
Thu 20 Mar 5.30pm - 8.30pm Welcome Reception Fri 21 Mar 9.00am - 6.30pm Trade Exhibition Fri 21 Mar 5.30pm - 6.30pm Wind down at APP’s inaugural ‘Happy Hour' straight after the Conference Sessions conclude Sat 22 Mar 9.00am - 4.00pm Trade Exhibition Digital Health: The next 5 years for pharmacy
Thursday 20 March | 2.00-2.45pm | Arena 1A
The May 2023 federal budget revealed a $1.1 billion investment to update the digital health infrastructure and to transform My Health Record into a more data-rich platform. With pharmacists expanding their roles, this session will outline how this digital investment can enhance health outcomes for Australians. It will explore the implications for pharmacists with an upgraded My Health Record, and how the evolving digital medication platforms seek to further improve medication safety.
Moderator: Paul Naismith - Founder and CEO, Fred IT Group
Panellists:
Daniel McCabe - First Assistant Secretary Medicare Benefits and Digital Health, Australian Government Department of Health
Paul Creech - Chief Program Officer, Australian Digital Health Agency
Regina Cowie - Partnerships Manager eHealth, Fred IT Group.
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