Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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NATIONAL HEALTH (PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1996 NO.70

STATUTORY RULES 1996 No. 70

Issued by Authority of the Minister for Health and Family Services

National Health Act 1953

National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 140 of the National Health Act 1953 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make Regulations for the purposes of the Act.

Amendments have been made to the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations (the Regulations) to remove the requirement that repeat authorisations and deferred supply authorisations for the supply of pharmaceutical benefits be prepared in duplicate, to bring up to date the processing of applications for authority to prescribe increased quantities and repeats of pharmaceutical benefits, and to make some other minor changes.

Subregulation 8(2) requires approved pharmacists, when making applications for certain types of financial assistance under Part VII of the Act, to use the relevant form approved by the Secretary. Subregulation 8(2) has been amended to take account of the change of name of "essential pharmacy allowance" to "isolated pharmacy allowance", to provide for application forms for remote pharmacy allowance and professional allowance, and to remove references to the application forms for amalgamation or closure payments, as these payments are no longer available.

Regulation 13 sets out the procedures to be followed when a medical practitioner wishes to prescribe an increased quantity or increased number of repeats of a pharmaceutical benefit for a particular patient. Regulation 13 has been amended to reflect current practice, and in particular, to provide for telephone authorisation of such prescriptions.

The medical practitioner will be required to prepare an authority prescription, either in handwriting or by computer, in accordance with the form approved by the Secretary, and then obtain authorisation from the Minister either in writing or by telephone. If authorisation is sought in writing, the complete prescription form will be forwarded to the Secretary, and, on authorisation by the Minister, returned either to the medical practitioner, or, if so requested, to the patient. If authorisation is obtained by telephone, the medical practitioner will be required to endorse the prescription with the number allotted by the Minister, and retain a copy of the prescription for one year.

A consequential amendment has also been made to the definition of "authority prescription" in subregulation 5(1).

Regulation 19 sets out the requirements to be met by medical practitioners and participating dental practitioners when preparing pharmaceutical benefit prescriptions. The regulation has been amended by restoring the requirements for the prescription to be endorsed "PBS" (or "NHS" on prescriptions printed before the commencement date of the Regulation) and for the name and address of the prescriber to be shown.

Subregulation 26(1A) sets out the requirements for the preparation of a repeat authorisation form in respect of the supply of a pharmaceutical benefit for which further supplies are allowed. The subregulation has been amended so that it is no longer necessary to prepare duplicate copies of these forms.

Similar changes have been made to sub-regulation 26A(2) in relation to the preparation of deferred supply authorisations.

Regulation 32 has been amended to cease the requirement for an approved supplier to retain duplicate copies of repeat authorisations and deferred supply authorisations prepared by the supplier, consequent on the changes made to regulations 26 and 26A. A further amendment to regulation 32 required approved hospital authorities to retain duplicate copies of prescriptions under the same conditions as apply to approved pharmacists and approved medical practitioners.

Regulation 36, which provided for payment to an approved pharmacist for supply, on a test prescription, of a pharmaceutical benefit which is found to be of appropriate standard, has been omitted as section 104 of the National Health Act 1953, which enabled an authorised person to write such a test prescription, was repealed by the Health Legislation (Powers of Investigation) Amendment Act 1994.

Regulations 44 and 45 have been amended to correct references to subregulation 40(2) in those regulations to references to subregulation 41(2).

The Regulations will commence on 1 June 1996.