PBS Abbreviations

5CPA	Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement
AAPC (sometimes referred to as UCPAS)	Allowable additional patient charge (10% of General Co-payment + 50c). The amount of this fee cannot count toward the Safety Net threshold.
Act	National Health Act 1953
Approved Supplier	Approved Supplier means an approved pharmacist, an approved medical practitioner or an approved hospital authority, under sections 90, 92 and 94 of the National Health Act 1953 respectively
ASN	Approved Supplier Number for approved pharmacists, approved medical practitioners and approved hospital authorities
BP	The Brand Premium is an additional amount paid by the patient if a medication brand is chosen which is more expensive than the clinically equivalent item listed on the PBS.
CDP	The Commonwealth Dispensed Price is the price calculated according to the PBS regulations for the quantity dispensed used as the basis of remuneration to the approved supplier prior to the deduction of the patient Co-payment.
Concessional Patient	Patients who hold a Medicare card and in addition a Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Health Care Card (HCC), Repatriation Card, Safety Net concession card or a Safety Net Entitlement card
CPN	Claim Period Number
CTG	The PBS Closing the Gap (CTG) Co-payment measure has been developed to provide assistance to eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients with, or at risk of, chronic disease, to improve access to PBS medicines through Co-payment relief
CTS	Claim Transmission System – Diskette based claiming system
DoHA	Department of Health and Ageing
DPMQ	Commonwealth Dispensed Price for Maximum Quantity – Published in the Schedule of Pharmaceutical benefits
EPF	Electronic Prescription Fee is a fee payable to a pharmacist for downloading an eligible prescription from an approved PES.
General Patient	Patients who hold a Medicare card and do not have any concessional entitlements as detailed in the Schedule of Pharmaceutical benefits.
NOI	Notice of Integration required by Medicare for changes to PBS Online
Non PBS Approved Pharmacist	(See para 5.1.4) A jurisdictionally approved pharmacist, but without approval from Medicare to supply PBS subsidised medicines at the designated premises.
Patient Co-payment	The patient contribution at the annually designated rate paid by the patient as a contribution to the Commonwealth dispensed price of the medication.
PBS Rebate	The amount paid by Medicare Australia to the Approved Supplier representing the Commonwealth dispensed price for PBS listed items less the patient Co-payment.
PBSOL	PBS Online Claiming System
PDS	Pharmacy Dispensing System
PES	Prescription Exchange Service
PFDI	Premium free dispensing incentive. The premium paid to Approved Suppliers for dispensing a claimable substitutable brand where a brand premium does NOT apply to the item selected.
Safety Net Contribution	The Safety Net Contribution is the amount which may be recorded for a particular medication to contribute to a families’ annual safety net threshold.
SNRF/SNSS	Safety Net Recording Fee (aka SNSS – Safety Net Standard Surcharge) is a fee which may be charged to General patients for UCP medications, provided this does not take the cost of a prescription above the maximum General Patient Co-payment. The amount of this fee contributes toward the Safety Net threshold.
UCC	UnderCoClaim, another name for the above used by Medicare.
UCP	Under Co-payment refers to prescriptions where the Commonwealth Dispensed Price is less than or equal to the patient Co-payment
UPPN	A Pharmacy Prescription Number guaranteed by the PDS to be unique for that prescription dispensed under a pharmacist’s PBS approval number.