During the transition to Active Ingredient Prescribing, the Department has agreed to provide a six-month grace period for pharmacy, ceasing 31 July 2021.

Within this period, if a pharmacy receives a prescription that does not meet active ingredient prescribing requirements the pharmacists have been advised to contact the prescriber and request the prescription be re-issued in accordance with the requirements that come into effective on 1 February 2021.

If the prescriber is unable to issue a compliant prescription for any reason, the pharmacy may supply and claim for the medicine as normal under the PBS or RPBS without penalty.

However, from 1 August 2021, new PBS and RPBS prescriptions which do not meet active ingredient prescribing requirements cannot be dispensed as PBS prescriptions and will need to be reissued in alignment with active ingredient prescribing requirements, or dispensed as private prescriptions.

If prescribers would like more information on Active Ingredient Prescribing, there are a number of communication and educational materials available to them, including:

• Clinical Support Materials including an Active Ingredient Prescribing User Guide, List of Medicines for Brand Consideration and List of Excluded Medicinal Items available on the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s website;
• Fact Sheets, FAQ pages and other resources for prescribers, pharmacists and consumers on the NPS MedicineWise and PBS websites;
• Newsletter articles on the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, Australian Medical Association, and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Pharmacy Guild websites.

Learn more about about Electronic Medication Management here.