Contractors who make their monthly FP34C submissions through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by the fifth day of the month after that in which the supply was made will receive their advance payments about 20 days earlier compared to the current timetable, PSNC said when announcing the new advance payment timetable yesterday (August 26).
The introduction of this new timetable follows the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DH) decision to end the PEPS, following the collapse of its funding provider Greensill Capital earlier this year.
PSNC said the new agreement it reached with DH should benefit all contractors, “whether or not they had taken advantage of the PEPS”.
Transition period
The contract with PEPS’s previous funding provider came to an end on June 30.
There are approximately 2,000 pharmacies affected by this change, and they will receive their final PEPS payment on October 1, PSNC explained in a briefing document.
From November 1, these contractors will start moving to the new early advance payment timetable over a 12-month transition period, PSNC added.
Outgoing PSNC CEO Simon Dukes said he knows contractors on the PEPS had been “anxious for news”.
The extended transition period that PSNC has negotiated with the DH “should significantly ease cashflow pressures on contractors currently using the PEPS”, he added.
Other changes to the advance payment timetable
Contractors making paper FP34C submissions will be able to do so until March 2022 – at which time they will be for February 2022 prescriptions – and will need to make all future monthly submissions via the MYS portal, PSNC said.
Contractors who make late submissions for the advance payments will incur an administrative charge of £25 from April 2022, it said.
However, those benefitting from this new timetable will also be given an extended deadline for FP34C submissions and dispatch of prescription bundles “in months where a bank holiday occurs during the first five days of the month”, PSNC added.
Mr Dukes said: “The option for all community pharmacy contractors to bring forward the timing of their advance payments is a long overdue and very welcome development that will benefit all pharmacy businesses. The agreement follows several months of discussions between PSNC and HM government, and PSNC is pleased to have got a positive outcome for all contractors.”
PEPS was announced by former Prime Minister David Cameron and introduced in 2013 to allow pharmacies to access their monthly advance payments up to 60 days earlier.
