EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
National Health Act 1953
National Health (Epworth and Cabrini Private Hospitals Paperless Prescribing and Claiming Trial) Special Arrangement 2014
PB 68 of 2014
Authority
Subsection 100(1) of the National Health Act 1953 (the Act) enables the Minister to make special arrangements for the supply of pharmaceutical benefits. Subsection 100(2) of the Act provides that the Minister may vary or revoke a special arrangement made under subsection 100(1).
Subsection 100(3) of the Act provides that Part VII of the Act, and instruments made for the purposes of Part VII of the Act have effect subject to a special arrangement made under subsection 100(1).
Purpose
The purpose of this instrument is to allow three private hospitals located in Victoria to use electronic and paper medication charts to prescribe and claim pharmaceutical benefits.
The approved suppliers supply pharmaceutical benefits using paper copies of the medication charts and then submit claims to the Chief Executive Medicare without paper copies of the medication charts. The approved suppliers must then create electronic records of the medication charts which are stored for not less than two years to facilitate auditing by the Chief Executive Medicare if necessary.
This Special Arrangement revokes and replaces the National Health (Epworth Private Hospitals Paperless Prescribing and Claiming Trial) Special Arrangement 2014. The revoked special arrangement only authorised trial participation by Epworth Eastern hospital and Epworth Freemason’s hospital (at its two addresses). This Special Arrangement extends the trial to an additional private hospital in Victoria, Cabrini Brighton.
The Department expects that the results of the trial will contribute to the development of national eHealth policy, and more specifically medication chart specifications which are currently being developed through the Medication Charts in Public and Private Hospitals Initiative.
Consultation
The Department of Health consulted with the Department of Human Services, the participating hospitals and their approved suppliers during the development of this Instrument. As a result of these consultations all parties are satisfied with the outcomes and terms and conditions of the Epworth and Cabrini Private Hospitals Paperless Prescribing and Claiming Trial.
A provision by provision description of this Special Arrangement is contained in the Attachment.
This Special Arrangement commences on 1 October 2014.
This instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
ATTACHMENT
PROVISION BY PROVISION DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH (EPWORTH AND CABRINI PRIVATE HOSPITALS PAPERLESS PRESCRIBING AND CLAIMING TRIAL) SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 2014 (PB 68 of 2014)
Section 1 Name of Special Arrangement
This section provides that the Special Arrangement is the National Health (Epworth and Cabrini Private Hospitals Paperless Prescribing and Claiming Trial) Special Arrangement 2014 and that it may also be cited as PB 68 of 2014.
Section 2 Commencement
This section provides that the Special Arrangement commences on 1 October 2014.
Section 3 Revocation
This section revokes instrument PB 16 of 2014, the special arrangement authorising the Epworth Private Hospital Paperless Prescribing and Claiming Trial.
Section 4 Definitions
This section defines a number of expressions that are used in the Special Arrangement, including ‘approved supplier’, ‘hospital’ and ‘in-patient of the hospital’.
Section 5 Application of Part VII of the Act
Subsection 100(3) of the Act provides that Part VII of the Act, and regulations or other instruments made for the purposes of Part VII have effect subject to a special arrangement made under subsection 100(1).
Section 5 provides that the pharmaceutical benefits supplied under this Special Arrangement are supplied under Part VII. This is the situation under the Act and this section confirms that this is not intended to be modified by the Special Arrangement.
Section 6 Pharmaceutical benefits covered by this Special Arrangement
This section provides for the pharmaceutical benefits that are covered by this Special Arrangement. The pharmaceutical benefits covered are all pharmaceutical benefits except those that are supplied only under another special arrangement.
Section 7 Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits
This section provides for the circumstances in which a medication chart prepared by a PBS prescriber will be taken to be a validly written prescription and the information that the PBS prescriber needs to include on a medication chart. This modifies the requirements for a prescription in Regulation 19 of the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations 1960 (the Regulations).
This section also provides limitations on prescribing using medication charts. PBS prescribers are not allowed to direct a repeated supply or supply all on one occasion. If they direct a repeated supply that direction is invalid. If they direct supply all on one occasion on a medication chart it is deemed to be a direction to supply the maximum quantity for that pharmaceutical benefit determined under paragraph 85A(2)(a) of the Act. PBS prescribers are also not allowed to prescribe a pharmaceutical benefit requiring an authority prescription using a medication chart.
Section 8 Supply and Claiming of Pharmaceutical Benefits
This section provides that this Special Arrangement applies to approved suppliers listed in column 2 of the Schedule to this Special Arrangement when supplying pharmaceutical benefits to in-patients of the hospitals listed in column 1 of the Schedule to this Special Arrangement.
This section provides that an approved supplier cannot defer the supply of any pharmaceutical benefit supplied under this Special Arrangement. This section also modifies the requirements in Regulation 31 of the Regulations for eligible persons to confirm receipt of pharmaceutical benefits and date of supply by allowing an approved supplier to certify on a medication chart that the in-patient of the hospital has received the pharmaceutical benefit/s prescribed on the medication chart.
This section also provides for the keeping of electronic pharmacy records of pharmaceutical benefits supplied under this Special Arrangement where the approved supplier is making a claim under section 99AAA of the Act. The Chief Executive Medicare can request a copy of electronic pharmacy records or medication charts for pharmaceutical benefits supplied under this Special Arrangement.
This section also provides that approved suppliers are required to submit claim and under co-payment data to the Chief Executive Medicare as required by the rules under subsections 99AAA(8) and 98AC(4) of the Act.
Section 9 Transitionals
This section provides transitional arrangements so that the approved supplier for the Epworth Private Hospitals can make a valid claim where pharmaceutical benefits prescribed under the previous special arrangement for the Epworth Private Hospitals have not been supplied prior to 1 October 2014.
The Schedule
The Schedule provides the name and address of the hospitals participating in this Special Arrangement and the name, address and approval number of the approved suppliers associated with the hospitals participating in this Special Arrangement.