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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions during each of the last three years pharmacists were denied prescription reimbursement by the NHS because they had submitted forms for prescription charge exemption that had been erroneously completed by patients; and what was the estimated cost of these erroneously completed forms to pharmacists in each of those years. [149063] Ms Stuart: No pharmacy contractors have been denied reimbursement because they have submitted prescription forms which have been incorrectly completed by patients claiming exemption from charges. Pharmacists are required to collect a charge in respect of each chargeable item supplied unless a declaration of entitlement to exemption or remission is completed on the prescription form by or on behalf of the patient. This has been a requirement since 1968. Pharmacists are also required to sort forms into "exempt" and "non-exempt" groups before submitting them to the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA) for payment. When a form is submitted as exempt from charges but without a completed declaration, it will be treated as non-exempt. Forms submitted as exempt but showing a charge are also treated as non-exempt. Forms submitted as non-exempt are treated as exempt if they bear a completed declaration. In each case these forms are processed according to the declaration, as required by law, rather than according to the group in which the pharmacist has submitted them. A temporary concession has been introduced for prescriptions dispensed from June 2000 onwards to encourage pharmacists and their staff to improve the completion rate. Under the concession, no adjustment is made in respect of forms for patients aged less than 16 or 60 or over on which the patient's age has been printed by the prescriber, even if the declaration required by law has not been completed. In conjunction with this, information is now routinely provided to pharmacists by the PPA about the number of forms which have been submitted as exempt but treated as non-exempt; which would have been treated as non-exempt but for the concession; or have been treated as exempt when submitted as non-exempt. Information about forms submitted as exempt without a completed declaration of exemption prior to June 2000 is not available. Information about exempt and non- exempt forms since then is in the table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. June July August September Items on forms submitted as 118,013 107,911 105,822 104,025 exempt without a declaration Items to which concession 37,965 35,834 36,583 35,290 applied for patients under 16 or 60 and over Charges deducted from 480,288 432,462 415,436 412,410 payments--line one less line two x £6.00 (£) Total items dispensed 45,049,254 42,314,572 43,062,881 42,518,754 Percentage of items on forms 0.26 0.26 0.25 0.24 submitted as exempt without a completed declaration--line one/line four _________________________________________________________________________________________________. If previous patterns of submitting forms without declarations of exemption were similar, then adjustments to payments would have been around £7 million in 1997-98, £7.4 million in 1998-99 and £7.8 million in 1999-2000.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

149063; 363 c305-6W;363 c305W

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Billing Fees and charges Exemptions Forms Payments Pharmacy Prescription drugs Prices Prescriptions Prescription Pricing Authority

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk