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New contracts to be entitled to Claim EPS R1 One-Off Allowance
All pharmacy contractors that were part of the national contract were paid two allowances of £1300 (i.e. a total of £2600) in December 2005 and February 2006. These allowances were to support pharmacies in deploying Release 1 of the Electronic Prescription Service.
An amendment has been made to the April 2009 Drug Tariff to enable EPS Release 1 enabled contractors who opened new premises (other than a minor relocation) after December 2005, and who missed out on receiving one or both of the £1300 allowances to apply for the missed allowance payments. The ETP Release 1 allowance claim form can be downloaded from the PSNC Website and must be submitted to the contractor's PCT. The deadline for claims for the Release 1 allowance is the 31st of July 2009. After this date no retrospective claims for payment will be processed.
LPS contractors who transferred to the national contract after December 2005 and who missed out on one or both of the £1300 payments, will need to discuss with their PCT whether it is appropriate for them to claim up to £2600 for the service.
The Release 1 allowances are paid only once, in relation to pharmaceutical services provided at the same premises irrespective of any subsequent merger or sale. Where there has been a relocation, there is no right to claim further Release 1 allowances for the new relocated premises.
If a pharmacy contractor that received the two £1300 allowances in December 2005 and February 2006 but has not already deployed Release 1 of the Electronic Prescription Service, they are expected to deploy Release 1 by 31st July 2009. If there is a reason that a pharmacy is not able to deploy the service by 31st July 2009, this should be discussed with their PCT.
The arrangements for claiming the EPS Release 2 allowance have also been clarified. A further allowance of £1000 will be paid linked to a pharmacy deploying Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service. Payment will be automatically triggered, when a pharmacy submits a synthetic reimbursement message to NHS Prescription Services. A contractor will be given a barcode of a digitally signed test prescription during deployment of Release 2 in the pharmacy. When the contractor sends the test electronic reimbursement message to the spine, this will trigger both the Release 2 £1000 allowance and a contractor being classified as enabled for nomination (i.e. information being fed to NHS Choices that the contractor is enabled). Confirmation of payment will appear on a contractor's Schedule of payments.
At present there are no EPS Release 2 compliant systems available in the market. At a later date, once more information is known about the likely timescale for deploying EPS Release 2, a deadline will be set for claiming this allowance.
The full costs to contractors of deploying EPS Release 2 will not be known until EPS Release 2 is used in practice. PSNC is working to ensure that all costs and other resource implications are identified and assessed so that these can be considered in funding negotiations with the Department of Health.
Resources
The form for claiming the one off Release 1 allowances can be downloaded by clicking here. An updated version of the EPS monthly allowance claim form can be downloaded by clicking here.
Please click here to see the most frequently asked questions regarding the allowances for the Electronic Prescription Service.
Posted 31 March 2009