[Revised Aug07]
The Medicare Australia specs specify the pricing rules. Bear in mind when you are in doubt about this that prescription pricing is a complex business and there are actually very few pharmacists who remember everything.
If a price is unexpected, work it out on paper being sure to consider all markups, dispensing fees, GST, premiums etc.
- If this shows that the unexpected price is in fact correct the problem is solved.
- If not, then consider the points below, and if none of these point to the cause, send the worked example to the support service for examination.
Causes of 'wrong' prices are, in order of reported frequency;
Price is unexpected (but correct). Script pricing is now so complex that it is easy to forget some factor, such as a Premium, and think the price is wrong when it is not. This is by far the most common cause of reported 'wrong' prices, so please before reporting a fault, consider;
Cost price change. Has the cost price changed? One dose form or pack size may have changed in price when another has not, and this needs to be taken into account.
Private/NHS category Has the NHS category changed? One dose form or pack size may now be Private, and so correctly different.
Premium A premium may have been introduced or removed, sometimes on just one dose form or pack.
GST Have you taken GST into account?
Repricing. If editing the drug, quantity or patient category, or something else that will affect pricing, <enter> down through all the fields to 'Finish' to ensure that it is repriced under the new conditions.
But note; Someone looking at this script later can think that the data has spontaneously changed, or that the price is wrong especially if the patient has become exempt meanwhile and a previously non-exempt script has been repriced under exempt rules.
Pricing policy 'racheting'
One staff member may consider that a price is wrong and change the pricing parameters to 'fix' it (price parameters described below). However, it is not really wrong but rather a change of pricing policy has occurred and pricing parameters have been deliberately changed. Staff members change it back and forth, all observing that the pricing has become unreliable. This is the second most common cause of reported 'wrong' prices, especially with pharmacies working long hours with different people on duty at different times. It is almost never true that "No one else would change the parameters except me..."
Suggestion Put a note on the computer screen advising all members of staff if a pricing policy change is made.
Pricing parameters wrong
NHS markup and dispensing fees are specified in the pricing options menu. User access is provided in case the rules change, but they should not otherwise be changed. Check that someone has not altered them, either accidentally or to 'fix' a problem.
Private/OTC pricing. Follows the 'Private and OTC' markup and dispensing fee specified by the user on the pricing options menu. The machine will follow your instructions, right or wrong.
Container fee Needs to remain correctly set or will alter all scripts. It is correct for original pack scripts, which have no container, to have a container fee charged as the container fee is an average of all scripts.
After hours fee
If set on the Pricing options screen, will charge on all scripts. E.g. if set to 50c every item will be charged at 50c extra, which will produce the wrong price on every script if it is not really 'after hours'. Set this fee to '0' when an after hours fee is not to be charged.
Data errors
Considerable care is taken to keep the drug data correct, but sometimes wrong information is supplied, missed, or entered incorrectly. If you find an error on the drug cards it can be corrected immediately by you on the card, and please also advise the help-desk so they can change it for the next update or it will revert. Please check before advising an error, that an unexpected price is actually wrong and not just unexpected, as most data 'errors' reported to the help-desk are price or availability changes that our data service has correctly changed.
How to test the pricing
If the above points do not solve the unexpected price, do a manual test on a calculator.
1. First confirm the correctness of your method by pricing a simple script (one that you know is correct on the computer and which has no premium), working through it on a calculator. If you do not get the same price as the computer then you are missing something that the computer is taking into account... such as GST which goes on after the drug cost but before the dispensing fee and container. Once you get the same price;
2. Manually price the script you suspect is wrong, using the cost, pack size, markup, GST, dispensing fee, container fee and NHS component of the Premium, from the drug card and pricing options menu.
This will usually show what is happening.
If the price still seems wrong, write down sufficient detail for the pricing to be reproduced; Quantity, drug, patient category, exempt status, and all the relevant markups, dispensing fees, container fees from your pricing options screen, and working. Fax this to the help-desk which will reproduce it on our test machines and advise what is wrong.
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