iPharmacy PBS Generates Savings On Drug Costs

Back to ANS PBS »

It is now common knowledge within the health sector that the Victorian, Tasmanian, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia state governments have signed agreements with the Federal government that allow public hospitals to dispense and make claims under PBS rules. Accordingly, iSOFT has launched the new PBS components for iPharmacy users who can take advantage of these new guidelines and significantly reduce their drug costs.

Northern Health has been a strong advocate of the paramedical iSOFT pharmacy software for many years. When Victoria adopted the PBS system in public hospitals, they implemented the iPharmacy PBS components.

With the new module up and running, Northern Health is enjoying benefits from greatly improved claim processes. Liam Carter, Deputy Director of Pharmacy at Northern Hospital, in Epping, Victoria, explains, “The system works extremely well and has proven to be robust and reliable. Whilst the initial configuration of the product files to enable PBS required some input, once that work was complete, the system maintenance has been straight forward.”

The claim file is simple to create and process. Claiming from PBS is currently via the PBS claim tool, however this module will be integrated into the main application in the next release, due shortly.

“With the claim process now finetuned, we ensure that we have high quality claims,” Liam Carter explains. “Where we ‘lose’ items from the claim, it is invariably a human error - not a system defect.”

With the PBS claim tool, the pharmacy can clearly identify the amount the HIC will pay, in addition to more frequent weekly HIC payments. Any rejections when dispensing allow any errors to be corrected while the patient is still in the pharmacy.

Update files are provided each month from iSOFT. “This correspondence is always timely and the update notes are clear and concise,” Liam Carter says. “There is an easy manual linkage of the iPharmacy product file with the PBS codes - but this is simple to manage and only required if products are added, deleted or changed.”

“Overall, we are very happy with the PBS and claiming aspects of iPharmacy – it has definitely provided significant benefits for our organisation.”

The information contained within this statement are the personal opinions of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the Hospital or Organisation.