Tests start for automatic prescription pricing
New computer technology is being tested for pricing NHS prescriptions dispensed by pharmacy contractors in England.
The NHS Business Services Authority’s prescription pricing division
is starting to replace manual data entry for calculating the reimbursement
and remuneration due to contractors with high speed scanning, character
recognition software and computerised pricing rules.
Human intervention will be reserved for prescriptions that cannot be
read by computer or those that contain inadequate information for automatic
pricing.
Initially, only a small number of contractors’ accounts will be
processed this way, but full roll-out to all dispensing contractors is
expected to take place eventually. Individual contractors will be notified
before their prescriptions are processed automatically.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee will be carrying out
its own audit of the new system by checking random samples of prescriptions
for accuracy of pricing.
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