Are you at risk of losing your service transitional payment?

From 1^st October 2021, some changes have been made to the transitional payment to pharmacy contractors. Previously, one payment was made on a monthly basis on the number of items that the pharmacy dispensed. From October 2021 it’s been split into two separate payments which are even payments: one for dispensing and one for service.

The overall total budget was increased, and the payment was split, the process was also changed. The dispensing payment is paid automatically based on your dispensed items and claimed items each month. The criteria for the service payment are that you must have done at least one NMS in the previous month to qualify for this payment. This is where the risk is. Also, you must be registered for the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) and the Manage Your Service (MYS) platform.

In this video, you can see a breakdown of the changes to the fee structure and how the payment was evenly split. If we look at the payment data for October 2021 when this change came in to play, 11,036 pharmacies were paid the monthly dispensing transitional fee, while 2,242 pharmacies did not get paid the Service Transitional fee due to no NMS having been done. This equated to over 20% of the total number of pharmacies in England that did not get paid the service transitional payment. This in turn, equates to £2.1 million that the NHS didn’t pay out in October. It’s a big chunk of money left on the table. There is still a risk for pharmacy contractors going forward without adequate controls. We recommend a report showing the branches that haven’t done an NMS towards the end of each month to mitigate this risk of missing out. It is widely acknowledged that there’s great monetary value in NMS going forward with the current service orientated contract. The potential losses to the pharmacy are compounded by these changes to the transitional payment.

To sum up, starting from October 2021, for a pharmacy contractor to receive the monthly service payment of the transitional payment, they must have:

1. Claimed for at least one New Medicine Service (NMS) in the previous month; and
2. Been registered to provide the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) on the Manage Your Service (MYS) platform for greater than or equal to half of the number of full days in the previous month.

Find out more details in this video or contact us at pharmacy@realworldanalytics.com to find out how we can help you to ensure the criteria are met for your service transitional payment.