Closing the Gap PBS Co-Payment Program Registration Grace Period

AMA and the Department of Health remind GPs about the registration grace period that allows First Nations people who are not correctly registered for the Closing the Gap (CTG) PBS Co-payment Program continued access to a reduced co-payment for PBS medicines covered under the Program. 

During the registration grace period a warning message will appear in the pharmacy’s dispensing system advising that a patient isn’t correctly registered for the CTG PBS Co-payment Program. In this situation the First Nations person must be advised to speak to their PBS prescriber or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner about being correctly registered for the Program. 

PBS prescribers or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners can confirm if First Nations people are registered for the Program via HPOS prior to issuing a PBS prescription to be covered under the Program. If they are not, the system will indicate that the person is “inactive”. 

Services Australia has established e-learning modules to help prescribers to: 

• set up an account in PRODA for HPOS: PRODAM03 How to register for an individual account 

• register eligible patients for the CTG PBS Co-payment Program CTG PBS Co-payment Program: PBSM08_1 - How to register a patient for Closing the Gap (CTG) PBS Co-payment