Prescription Pricing Division

Figure 1.3 contains an example of a standard operating procedure for the professional check of a dispensed prescription form within a community pharmacy. Using this information (and the example in Figure 1.2) fill out the audit question document in Figure 1.4 for the audit of prescription form returns from the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) (see Section 3.3.8) with the questions you would ask. 

Review resubmissions (i.e. prescription forms returned from the Prescription Pricing Division ). 

Figure 1.4 A blank audit form for the audit of prescription form returns from the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) within a community pharmacy ( or equivalent - see Section 3.3.8).

In these situations, dispensing doctors will prescribe and dispense the medication for the patient. In order for the doctor to be reimbursed for the cost of the medicine and to be remunerated for the service, dispensing doctors will submit any prescription forms they have dispensed to the NHS Business Services Authority Prescription Pricing Division (or equivalent) at the end of the month in the same way that pharmacists do (see Section 3.3.8). 

In general, community pharmacies will purchase most of the items they dispense via one or two local wholesalers. In return for this business, wholesalers will provide a discount on the cost of the items to the pharmacy. As pharmacies will be reimbursed the cost of the medication via the Prescription Pricing Division or Health Solutions Wales, a deduction percentage is applied to the items being reimbursed. This aims to prevent the NHS having to pay more for any prescription items than the pharmacy contractor paid the wholesaler. This deduction is based on a scale, set against the monthly total of the price of the items dispensed. Details of this scale can be found in Part V. 

II, Clause 11). For example, if a contractor had to supply 50 tablets of a drug that came in a pack size of 100, they would have to purchase 100 in order to be able to supply the 50. However, if it was a drug that was rarely used, the pharmacy contractor will be financially disadvantaged if they did not supply the remainder against a prescription before the end of the item s shelf-life. Therefore, for certain items the Prescription Pricing Division will pay for the entire container (not just the proportion supplied). If a further prescription is received for the same item within six-months of a broken bulk request, the Prescription Pricing Division will assume that the supply has been made from the remainder and the only payments which will be made are professional fees and container allowances until the remainder has been used up. 

This is important as the pharmacy is acting on behalf of the NHS in collecting the prescription charges. As the pharmacy will keep these charges, the Prescription Pricing Division will deduct the amount collected from the monies it will pay to the pharmacy at the end of the month. This deduction will be based on what the pharmacy should have collected, irrespective of what they did collect. Therefore, if a pharmacy does not take the correct number of... 

Finally, once the prescription item(s) have been passed to the patient or the patient s representative, the pharmacist or pharmacy technician should confirm that the prescription form has been endorsed properly (to ensure that the pharmacy will be correctly reimbursed and remunerated for the supply - see Section 2.4.1, Part IIIA) and the prescription form can then be filed ready for submission at the end of the month. In England, this will be to the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) of the NHS Business Services Authority in Northern Ireland, the Central Services Agency in Scotland, Practitioner Services Division (PSD) of NHS National Services Scotland and in Wales, Health Solutions Wales (HSW). 

Unlike NHS prescription supply (see Section 3.3.8), the patient or the patient s representative will pay you for the entire cost of the medication (plus a mark-up cost and dispensing fee charged by the pharmacy to cover their costs). Therefore, non-NHS (private) prescription forms do not need to be sent off to the NHS Business Services Prescription Pricing Division (or equivalent) for reimbursement at the end of each month (except with the private prescribing of Schedule 2 and Schedule 3 controlled drugs see Section 6.3.3). 

National Health Services Business Services Authority Prescription Pricing Division website (available via www.ppa.org.uk). 

Responsibility for administration of Part IX of the Drug Tariff is shared between the Department of Health and the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) of the NHS Business Services Authority. The former has responsibility for policy matters and tire latter for die approval of the four separate lists on behalf of tiie Secretary of State for tiie purposes of i tion 41 of the NHS Act and to determine tiie prices on which payments to contractors are to be based. In addition the PPD has responsibility for operating a mechanism to remove products fiom Part DC. 

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