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The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) chief executive Janet Morrison has assured contractors that PSNC will continue to raise with the new prime minister all concerning issues that are bothering pharmacy businesses. She felt the "fixed five-year funding settlement that is declining in real terms" was one of the serious factors that is putting a lots of pressure on contractors. PSNC has provided a compelling portfolio of evidence on the impact that pressures are having on the sector, and requested urgent additional funding, she said. Morrison, in her video message shared yesterday (August 24), urged contractors to keep sharing and sending evidences to act on their behalf. She said she is aware "this one of the toughest periods for the businesses" and "I believe that it demands more action from the government." Morrison assured the sector she was aware that contractors were also facing difficulties in "dealing with global medicines market and the challenges on been able to procure medicines within the drug tariff." "I know how hard it is to see the future sustainability of your businesses. I can see you are facing serious workforce pressure, rising cost, shortage of pharmacists, inflation pressure. I know your using facing increase in demand from the patients who has given up on their GPs and turning to you for support and advice."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has refused to accept the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)'s decision to get rid of 'transitional payments' from February 2023. The pharmacy negotiator said that 'any reductions in payments at this point will be impossible for community pharmacy contractors to manage financially.' "We are also continuing to be clear with officials and ministers that CPCF funding needs an urgent uplift to help businesses to cope with soaring costs being driven by inflation and the workforce crisis. We put a comprehensive business case to the government for this uplift in the last CPCF negotiations." The latest 'transitional payments decision' by the Department follows the announcement last year that the value of the these payments would be phased down over the second half of 2022/23 and will be based on the latest monitoring and analysis of funding delivery. PSNC says it submitted a fully-costed bid for a 'Pharmacy First' service in its last round of negotiations alongside the case for an uplift to core CPCF funding. Both of these were refused.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has reminded community pharmacy contractors that they have two weeks left to claim an Aspiration payment for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) 2022/23. The window for claiming the payment will close at 11.59pm on 4 November 2022. "The Aspiration payment is optional; if contractors do not want to claim it, it will not impact on the contractor's ability to claim a PQS payment during the declaration period. There is also no requirement to have claimed for a previous PQS to claim an Aspiration payment for PQS 2022/23," said PSNC.

The new Flat Fee payment to roll out in April 2023 to all pharmacy contractors who dispense at least 101 items a month, up to a national total of £70m on an annual basis. "The value of the Flat Fee payment has now been determined at £533 per month and will be introduced in the April 2023 Drug Tariff," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). "As with all payments, the Flat Fee payments are subject to change throughout the year depending on the overall level of funding delivery to Community Pharmacies. This will be carefully monitored by PSNC and DHSC, and any funding changes will be communicated to pharmacy contractors as soon as they are known," said PSNC.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has announced that the new Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) for this year will officially begin on October 10. From previous scheme £75m funding is also available and contractors will be able to claim an 'Aspiration payment' if they wish to, later this year. PSNC, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have agreed the arrangements for the 2022/23 PQS, as well as those for the 2023/24 PQS, with a focus on supporting recovery from Covid-19 and wider national health priorities. The committee said: "In our negotiations on the scheme, PSNC has managed to reduce the scope of this year's PQS so that the estimated contractor costs and time required to complete the criteria will be below those associated with the original NHS proposals for the scheme." "A further reduction in scope has also been agreed due to the delayed start of the 2022/23 PQS. PSNC hopes that this, along with arguing for more realistic targets across the scheme, will help reduce the impact on contractor workload, at what continues to be a very busy and pressured period for the sector."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has developed a webtool to help community pharmacy contractors estimate the impact on their payments under the new discount deduction system. The calculator aims to illustrate the changes to discount deduction that a pharmacy could experience during the transition to the new arrangements from October 2022 to January 2024, when the new system will be fully in place. PSNC's calculator requires contractors to input information about their individual pharmacy dispensing mix (i.e. split of reimbursement by appliances, brands and generics) to provide an estimate for the level of impact the new discount deduction system will have. "The impact on individual pharmacies cannot be estimated without using dispensing mix data, meaning that any estimates which do not take this into account will not be reliable," said PSNC. For years many contractors have been frustrated by how discount is applied to their accounts and have often raised concerns about the blanket nature of its application to PSNC.

More than 9,300 pharmacy contractors would benefit from earlier advance payment in February, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in an update. Contractors who declared their January 2022 FP34C submission figures through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by February 5 will receive earlier advance payments by today (February 10). The statistics indicates nearly 2,000 contractors will not receive any earlier advance payment this month, either because their January declarations were submitted late or they used the paper FP34C submission document to make their declaration, PSNC said. These contractors will receive their advance payments in accordance with the normal payment timetable i.e. on March 1. The negotiator reminded contractors that from April 2022 MYS will be the only process to make monthly submissions.

More than 6,000 pharmacy contractors who declared their October 2021 FP34C submission figures by November 5, will have received earlier advance payments on November 11. The contractors had submitted their claims through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. All contractors who received payments under the system would have got a letter from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) regarding these payments,PSNC stated. Approximate 3,000 contractors submitted claims after November 5, and will receive payments as per the normal payment timetable on December 1, it said. The negotiator encouraged contractors to benefit from earlier advance payments by submitting their monthly declaration through the MYS portal by the 5th of the month.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has announced the margin delivery rates will increase from October as the agreed £100m write off is implemented. "The baseline margin allowance will remain £800m per year in 2022/23 and 2023/24," said PSNC. "Margin levels in the last two full years (2020/21 and 2021/22), as measured by the Margin Survey of independent pharmacies, were in excess of the baseline allowance, meaning that an excess was accrued." As new services have been introduced and take up of these has accelerated, the amount of unallocated funding left in the CPCF is now less than it previously was. As such, the value of the Transitional Payments will decrease from its current level. Some of the unallocated funding remaining in 2023/24 will be repurposed into a Flat Payment for all contractors (see details below). Over the course of the second half of 2022/23, the value of the Transitional Payments will be phased down. This will start in October 2022 with a reduction in payment levels to approximately 85% of the current level, as shown in the following table:

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has urged pharmacy contractors to use Manage Your Service (MYS) portal only for all monthly FP34C submissions. To secure access to earlier advance payments on 11 April 2022, the committee has advised pharmacy contractors to submit their claims for NHS pharmaceutical services delivered in March 2022 no later than 5 April 2022. PSNC said: "The Manage Your Service (MYS) portal is now the ONLY route available to contractors for all monthly FP34C submissions. From March 2022, contractors will no longer receive the paper FP34C submission document through the post. However, the NHSBSA will continue to post out red separators for contractors to submit relevant forms each month.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has reminded community pharmacy contractors to start working on the quality criteria if they intend to meet the Respiratory domain of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) 2022/23. For respiratory domain, community pharmacy contractors  must start working towards inhaler waste management; use of a spacer in patients aged 5-15 years; and personalised asthma action plans, from today (10 October). Resources are also available to support contractors with meeting the above criteria on the PQS hub page. PSNC also informed that contractors are also now able to make a claim for an Aspiration payment for the PQS 2022/23 on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)  Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. "The Aspiration payment is optional; if contractors do not want to claim it, it will not impact on the contractor's ability to claim a PQS payment during the declaration period. There is also no requirement to have claimed for a previous PQS to claim an Aspiration payment for PQS 2022/23.

Any prescription for Promethazine hydrochloride 10mg tablets x 56 submitted for payment to the NHSBSA for July 2022 will be reimbursed at the new price of £17.77 not as per the price concession of £13.45 announced in the 4th concessions update published on 29 July 2022, said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). In July 2022, PSNC received several reports from contractors unable to obtain Promethazine hydrochloride 10mg tablets (56) at the published Drug Tariff price of £4.24. Therefore, it submitted a request for a price concession, which was granted and subsequently published but this was later withdrawn after confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that due to the price change mechanism, the reimbursement price for Promethazine hydrochloride 10mg tablets has increased from £4.24 to £17.77 for July 2022. PSNC said, "Following the price change mechanism rules, for generic drugs (excluding drugs in Category M), a price change up to and including the 8th of the month takes effect for prescriptions dispensed in that same month. Any price change after the 8th takes place in the following month."

More than 10,000 pharmacy contractors those have declared their March FP34C submission figures through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by 5 April will receive earlier advance payments on Monday 11 April, the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) announced. Around 10,700 pharmacy contractors have made their submissions through MYS portal. They will receive their advance payments some 20 days earlier than the normal payment timetable. However, due to late submission (after April 5), over 500 contractors will not receive any earlier advance payments in April. These contractors will receive their advance payments on 1 May, in accordance with the normal payment timetable. From this month, MYS is the only route available to contractors for all monthly FP34C submissions. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) reminded contractors that from this month (for prescriptions dispensed in March), the NHSBSA may apply an administrative deduction of £25 if a prescription bundle is submitted late.

Pharmacy contractors will no longer need to print and submit a paper copy of their completed FP34C declaration made through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal when submitting their paper prescription bundle to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). Instead, from August 2022 (for July 2022 prescriptions), NHSBSA will post out a paper Account Identifier Document along with the red separators and pharmacy address labels each month. "The Account Identifier Document should be placed alongside the paper prescription bundle before it is dispatched for payment to the relevant pricing division of NHSBSA," said PSNC. With the help of Account Identifier Document, NHSBSA will be able to easily identify the pharmacy that has submitted the prescription bundle, which will help to speed up prescription processing. "If the Account Identifier Document is lost or misplaced, contractors will still be able to download and print another copy from MYS. The July 2022 Drug Tariff will be updated to reflect this change."

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has introduced new arrangements for the application of discount deduction to community pharmacy payments which will be implemented in six financial quarters beginning in October 2022 and concluding in January 2024. Under the new discount deduction system, the current single scale will be split into three groups: one each for generic medicines, branded medicines, and appliances. Separate fixed deduction rates have been determined for each group. This will provide all pharmacies the same rates of deduction applied to their reimbursement for the three different groups, regardless of the total value of that reimbursement. Fin McCaul, PSNC member and independent community pharmacy contractor, said: "The discount deduction scale has been a point of contention for contractors for many years, and PSNC has long been pushing to remedy this. "The incoming changes are designed to both improve equity of access to margin and manage the distortions presented by branded medicines, which just don't have the same level of discount available as generics.

Community pharmacy contractors eligible under the revised Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS) will receive their first of the new monthly payments with the January reconciliation payment due on April 1, 2022. Details of the revised version of the PhAS that commenced from January 1, was published in August 2021, with contractors receiving letters from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) indicating their eligibility in the Autumn, PSNC said in an update. Payments under the scheme are dependent on registration on NHSBSA's Manage Your Service (MYS) portal to provide the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service(CPCS). Meanwhile, the review application window is now open for contractors, which would enable the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) to correct inaccuracies related to a pharmacy's distance criteria/calculation.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has announced that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has granted final price concessions to further items for the month of October 2021. This is the fourth list of price concessions for the month. Contractors can find information on the first two batches of price concessions here, and learn about the process involved on PSNC's website. A price concession only applies for the month in which it is granted. No additional prescription endorsement are required as the new price is automatically applied by the NHS BSA to all items submitted for payment in the same month for which a price concession is granted. PSNC is still working with the DHSC to agree further concessionary prices on other drugs reported to be unavailable at the stated October 2021 Drug Tariff price. Check Pharmacy business website for the price concession lists.

A community pharmacy contractor would be charged £25 if a paper prescription bundle is submitted late to the NHSBSA. "A charge for processing of a late bundle would only apply if a contractor cannot provide evidence, where requested by the NHSBSA, that their bundle was submitted using secure track and trace delivery no later than the 5th day of the following month in which supply was made," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). "Where evidence is submitted, no administrative deduction will be made. If no evidence is provided within the required time, then an administrative deduction will be made from the next Schedule of Payments. The deduction which will appear on schedules as 'Late Fee' under the section "Details of other amounts authorised"." Since the introduction of an administrative charge for late bundle submissions, 16 contractors received a fine for submitting their March prescription bundles late.

To ease pressure on community pharmacies, the deadline to meet the requirements of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme will be extended, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) announced today (December 15). This follows an agreement reached between the negotiator and the NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Recognising the challenges faced by pharmacies and their contribution towards the Covid-19 vaccination programme, following additional changes have been agreed upon: Contractors will not be required to complete the Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire for 2021/2022; The requirement for pharmacy teams to complete a national audit (intended to be on valproate) in 2021/22 will be waived; and The requirement for pharmacy teams to complete a contractor-chosen clinical audit in 2021/22 will be waived.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is calling on NHS England and its member to pause and reflect before further implementing the pharmacy contraception service. NPA board met on Tuesday (25 April) to discuss the Pharmacy Contraception Service and the board decided that - with the community pharmacy sector at breaking point - it cannot support the immediate roll out of this service. The association believes that with no new funding for the service, and all existing funds in effect already allocated to other pharmacy activity, any payments to the sector for delivery of the oral contraception service will ultimately be clawed back by NHS England. Tweeting after the meeting yesterday, the NPA said: "We can't tell pharmacy owners what they can and can't do. But we can tell them the facts; fact number one is that with no new funding currently available everyone will be a loser from the implementation of this service on the current terms." NPA Vice-Chair Jay Badenhorst added: "We cannot be expected to take on more and more services without the increase in funding necessary to deliver them effectively. Meanwhile, taking on additional work when current workload already exceeds capacity risks impacting negatively on the overall quality of care people experience in pharmacies. We still believe this could, in future, be a great new pharmacy service, but not without the extra funding necessary to deliver it safely and effectively. We want to offer women this extra support, but if it's worth doing it's worth doing properly."