The Prescription Pricing Authority is to start sending under-cover investigators
to community pharmacies to make sure that checks on patients’ entitlement to
prescription charge exemption are properly carried out.
A document produced by the PPA’s directorate of counter fraud services and handed
out at the Chemex exhibition on September 3 and 4 says that counter fraud staff
will soon be calling on randomly selected pharmacies to see if they can help
resolve any problems with carrying out the checks.
"These visits may be followed up by further mystery shoppers who will check
compliance through anonymously presenting prescriptions for dispensing,"
the handout says. The results of these exercises are to be reported back to
the pharmacists involved and will be used to help health authorities develop
monitoring systems. The document says that exemption checks have already reduced
prescription charge exemption evasion by £36m to an estimated £59m. As a result
of this success, similar exemption checks are to be introduced for dental and
ophthalmic services.