New 'online pharmacy claiming' service being rolled out to pharmacies nationwide

Submitting pharmacy claims has just become easier with the nationwide roll-out of an “online pharmacy claiming” service, following its successful pilot in more than 200 Auckland Metro pharmacies.

Pharmacists can now submit claims to the Ministry of Health online using an electronic “claims gateway” integrated into existing pharmacy management software.

The online pharmacy claiming service has been developed by the Ministry of Health together with several District Health Boards (DHBs) and pharmacy vendors Toniq and Healthsoft, in response to increasing demand for online business-to-business processes.

It replaces a manual claims-submission process, requiring pharmacists to load claims onto diskettes to courier to the Ministry of Health for processing.

The Auckland Metro pilot scheme, carried out in late 2008 and throughout 2009, allowed the Ministry of Health to review and further enhance the service.

Remuera pharmacist David Gaseltine was one of the first pharmacists to adopt online pharmacy claiming and says he fully supports the initiative.

“Online claiming is a lot more effective than the manual claims process. We are saving time and money because we no longer get diskette errors or have to post diskettes away. I also really like that online claiming evens out peaks and troughs in our cash flow,” he says.

A nationwide roll-out will now continue with pharmacies from the DHBs that helped develop the service, followed by the pharmacies of a number of other DHBs that have proactively arranged for their pharmacies to use the service.

Once the roll-out to pharmacies in these DHBs is completed, more than 50 per cent of pharmacies will be claiming online. By June 2010, it is anticipated that 95 per cent of all pharmacies will have transitioned to the Ministry of Health online pharmacy claiming service.

For more information about online pharmacy claiming, please contact the Ministry’s online help desk on 0800 505 125, or email onlinehelpdesk@moh.govt.nz.