FAQ

 Hi Amanda

I have a quick question for you: How do I handle a prescription for a Ring Pessary for a patient of paying status? Normally I would send off the prescription to our Dispensing Appliance Contractor but I am unsure if they would charge the patient for it? Please advise.

Hi There,

Do you mean something like a Portia Ring Pessary?

If you do – my suggestion, on this occasion (as the patient pays) would be to keep it in house.

Basically, if we keep the item in-house, we can raise a prescription and submit it as Personally Administered and the patient wouldn’t pay.

If the Prescription  goes to pharmacy or a Dispensing Appliance Contractor such as Wardles or NWOS, they don’t have the facility to PA anything and so the patient would be expected to pay.

However, if the patient was over 60, I would definitely send to a Dispensing Appliance Contractor.

Hi there,

I have a question regarding nurse prescriptions, though it’s a little hard to explain. We bulk order medication for nurses such as Hydroxocobalamin and then at some point a patient will come in, have the item administered and then leave. The nurse would then generate the prescription and give it to us. Do we, legally, need to put that prescription through the dispensary system and ‘dispense’ the medication or can we just file it straight away ready for end of the month??  The type of items on these scripts are depo-provera and hydroxocobalamin.

I think I understand the question – is it generally PA items which the nurse will administer and then generate a prescription retrospectively?

If so, no you don’t need to dispense the prescription, just submit the prescription along with all the others.

Hi Amanda,

Hope you are well?  I wonder if you could help me? I have been asked to look at the cost implications of switching our Lantus patients to Semglee.  I cannot see that there would be much benefit as such because both are not subject to an MDS deal and only if we could find a Parallel Import would we stand to gain anything.  Have I missed anything?

You are correct and haven’t missed anything.

My only comment would be that the Semglee is slightly cheaper so the loss between purchase and reimbursement would be slightly less.