EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
National Health Act 1953
National Health (Paperless Prescribing, Dispensing and Claiming Trial) Special Arrangement 2014
PB 71 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 one private hospital located in Hervey Bay, Queensland to use a fully electronic medication management system to prescribe, dispense and claim pharmaceutical benefits.
The approved prescribers will prescribe pharmaceutical benefits within the electronic medication management system (referred to as medication orders). These medication orders are electronically sent to the approved supplier’s dispensing software for dispensing. Once dispensed, the pharmaceutical is administered to the patient and a claim for payment electronically sent to the Chief Executive Medicare by the approved supplier without paper copies of the medication order.
All stages of this process are captured within the electronic medication management system, which records the identity of each user during each transaction. The medication management system incorporates an advanced IT security framework, which provides user and patient confidence and facilitates robust PBS auditability functions.
The Department expects that the results of this trial will contribute to the development of national standards for electronic medication management systems which will be developed during the second phase of the PBS Medication Charts in Public and Private Hospitals Initiative. This trial will also provide valuable information and a potential testing environment for future eHealth policy developments.
Consultation
The Department of Health consulted with the Department of Human Services, the participating hospital and their approved supplier during the development of this Trial. As a result of these consultations, all parties are satisfied with the outcomes and terms and conditions of the Paperless Prescribing, Dispensing and Claiming Trial.
A provision by provision description of this Special Arrangement is contained in the Attachment.
This Special Arrangement commences on 13 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 (PAPERLESS PRESCRIBING, DISPENSING AND CLAIMING TRIAL) SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 2014 (PB 71 of 2014)
Section 1 Name of Special Arrangement
This section provides that the Special Arrangement is the National Health (Paperless Prescribing, Dispensing and Claiming Trial) Special Arrangement 2014 and that it may also be cited as PB 71 of 2014.
Section 2 Commencement
This section provides that the Special Arrangement commences on 13 October 2014.
Section 3 Definitions
This section defines a number of expressions that are used in the Special Arrangement, including ‘approved supplier’, ‘hospital’ and ‘patient of the hospital’.
Section 4 Application of Part VII of the Act
Subsection 100(3) of the Act provides that Part VII of the Nation Health Act 1953 (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 4 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 5 Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits
This section provides for the circumstances in which an electronic medication order prepared by a PBS prescriber will be taken to be a validly written prescription and the information that the PBS prescriber needs to include in an electronic medication order. This modifies the requirements for a prescription in Regulation 19 of the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations 1960 (the Regulations).
Section 6 Supply and Claiming of Pharmaceutical Benefits
Subsection 6(1) provides that this Special Arrangement applies to the approved supplier listed in column 2 of the Schedule to this Special Arrangement when supplying pharmaceutical benefits to patients of the hospital listed in column 1 of the Schedule to this Special Arrangement.
Subsection 6(2) 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 verify in an electronic medication order that the patient of the hospital has received the pharmaceutical benefit/s prescribed in the electronic medication chart.
Subsections 6(3) and (4) provide for the preparing and 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 electronic medication orders for pharmaceutical benefits supplied under this Special Arrangement under subsections 6(6) and (7).
Subsection 6(5) states that claims for pharmaceutical benefits do not need to be accompanied by electronic medication orders.
Subsection 6(8) provides that approved suppliers are required to submit claims 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.
The Schedule
The Schedule provides the name and address of the hospital participating in this Special Arrangement and the name, address and approval number of the approved supplier associated with the hospital participating in this Special Arrangement.