8CPA Dispense pricing changes: Temporary indexation freeze and reduction of optional $1 discount

The Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement announced that there will be a temporary freeze on indexation for Maximum Co-payment amounts for 2025, along with a reduction to the optional Co-payment discount.

Concessional Patients

From 2025 to 2029, the Maximum Allowable Discount for Concessional patients will be gradually reduced each year to offset the Co-payment freeze. In 2025, the Maximum Allowable Discount is $0.80.

General Patients

For 2025 only, the Maximum Allowable Discount for General patients is $0.10. From 2026 onwards, indexation will resume, and the Allowable Discount will no longer apply to General patients.

The January 2025 Dispense Update contains these fee changes  

The Maximum Allowable Discount values for both Concessional and General patients is provided in the January 2025 Dispensary Updates. If the current Maximum Allowable Discount values in Minfos exceed these maximums (e.g., you have $1.00 set for both Concessional and General), the January Dispense Update will automatically adjust them to $0.80 and $0.10, respectively.

 If the Use max. govt discount checkbox is selected, these values will automatically update to $0.80 for Concessional and $0.10 for General.

 No changes will be made if the current discount values are already below the new Maximum Allowable Discount amounts. Refer to Set up Co-Payment Discount for further details.

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Government fee changes for January 2025

On 1 January 2025, the following changes to PBS fees will apply:

Changes

Value

Co-payment

General patient Maximum Allowable Discount
 (previously Copayment Discount)

$0.10

Concession patient Maximum Allowable Discount
 (previously Copayment Discount)

$0.80

General patient Upper Increased Discounting Range threshold

$49.50

Safety Net Threshold

General patient Safety Net threshold

$1694.00

Changes in the dispense update

To view changes in the latest dispense update, please refer to the PBS Summary of Changes information available on the PBS website. 

Your Minfos software automatically collects the updates and imports them at the correct time.

Note: If your dispense update has not imported on the 1st of the month, please refer to these instructions to manually import your dispense updates.