Remuneration and claims system for approved pharmacists and approved hospital authorities supplying under the Remote Aboriginal Health Program under section 100 of the National Health Act 1953 (the Act):

The Australian Government reimburses pharmacies and hospital authorities under the s100 Remote Program for pharmaceutical benefits supplied by approved health services.

In this section:

The remuneration is the sum of the:

approved price to pharmacists
mark-ups, as appropriate for the cost of the item and
handling fee.

The approved price and mark-up are defined under section 98B(3) and 98B(1)(a) of the Act respectively. Current mark-up amounts are detailed by the Department of Human Services.

The handling fee historically was $1.14 and temporarily increased by $1.55 to $2.69 per Pharmaceutical Benefit Schedule (PBS) item supplied. This was the result of discussions between the Australian Government, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, and a number of individual pharmacists. This increase was included as a measure in the 2009-10 Federal Budget and was effective from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2010 at a cost of $3.1 million.

Ongoing annual indexation of the s100 handling fee was announced in the 2010/11 Budget. The handling fee has been increased since this announcement and is currently $2.82 as at 1 July 2012.