The pre-payment certificate for prescriptions is a funny idea - if the
prescription charge were intended to make people think twice about
acquiring a prescription for an otc item, then pre-payment is a
perverse incentive. COnsidered as a way of capping the cost to an
individual of treatment of illness it seems more sensible...
But, if we are about to take a better grip on the eligibility of
patients for free prescriptions, adding age or DoB to FP10s, and
recording and displaying individuals' exempt status on their FP10s, via
our practice systems, then we can work smarter here.
memo to NHSCCC and Jon Rogers: do we have suitable Read codes for
prescription exemption, yet? Or shall we do the usual thing of
inventing a dozen
different ways of recording it, only to be told a year later that
there is a State
approved one now?
I would find it convenient to have exempt status recorded, as it would
simplify the calculation of whether to print each individual item on
the left or the right of the prescription paper, as an NHS or private
prescription. THis could save several seconds in a consultation.
However, rather than obliging individuals to buy prepayment
certificates, a task beyond some of the neediest individuals, why not
explicitly cap the cost. THen, proivided they attend the same
pharmacy, or carry and present a card or log of some sort to record
payment of prescription charges, once an individual had paid the
maximum for that month, quarter, year or lifetime they would not be
troubled by demands for certificates or fees.
Recording and Inferring Exempt Status
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Working from a table listing the Read codes for the bizarre accumulated
list of excluding conditions one could set the machine to automatically
set the exempt status for many patients.
In adddition the best use of the exempt flag would be to validate an
assertion that the medical condition conferred exemption, against that
table, thus improving the completeness of the medical record.
SIlly system though.
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