Pre-Payment Certificates for Prescriptions

LittleMissKirsten

Found out about these following a recent operation

"If you will have to pay for four or more prescription items in three months, or more than 14 items in 12 months, you may find it cheaper to buy a PPC. The charge for a single prescription item is £7.40, whereas a three month PPC will cost you £29.10 and a 12 month PPC £104.00"

I apologise if this has been posted elsewhere or is not the right place to post it! Did a search before posting and nothing came up. Not many people seem to know about these, so I thought I'd spread the word!

VfM4meplse

LittleMissKirsten wrote: »

Found out about these following a recent operation

"If you will have to pay for four or more prescription items in three months, or more than 14 items in 12 months, you may find it cheaper to buy a PPC. The charge for a single prescription item is £7.40, whereas a three month PPC will cost you £29.10 and a 12 month PPC £104.00"

I apologise if this has been posted elsewhere or is not the right place to post it! Did a search before posting and nothing came up. Not many people seem to know about these, so I thought I'd spread the word!

Pharmacists will always suggest a purchase if it's likely to be cost-effective for the patient and issue NHS receipts and refund costs where necessary rather than charging a bundle. It's not in their interest to charge mindlessly, as this tariff goes straight to the Treasury.

The system does work, you know!

ETA I've just seen that you live in Somerset...maybe dispensing doctors don't show patients the same courtesy...!

LittleMissKirsten

VfM4meplse wrote: »

ETA I've just seen that you live in Somerset...maybe dispensing doctors don't show patients the same courtesy...!

Noone seemed to know about them. None of the hospital staff or Doctors told me they existed and the Nurses who I see every day didn't know you could get a pre-payment certificate at all. When I mentioned it to them afterward I got a blank stare and 'Oh, I didn't know you could do that' (!).
Not even the pharmasists had mentioned it. It was only through sheer luck that my mum heard about them and we did a Google search!

NeverAgain_2

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/1127.aspx

Reggie_Rebel

You can also pay by Direct Debit.

Gingernutty

My little PPC is a godsend!

£10.40 a month is great value for two inhalers, a nasal squirty thing, two different tablets, syrups, skin cream and any other random stuff I need from month to month.

I'm only worried that Cameron, Clegg & Co find out about it and put the price up.

Way, way up!

Candy53

I used to use them and I have to have tablets every month so it saved me alot of money. Don't know if you can do it now but I used to buy one for 8 months. You're right though, hardly anyone knows about them. I only got to know while I was paying for my prescriptions, as I get them from our surgery, the receptionist mentioned it and asked me if I'd got one.

Candy

Torry_Quine

When I needed one it was the pharmacist who first told me that it would be cheaper to get a pre-payment certificate due to the amount of medication I was on. Seems a shame that others don't do this.

victor2

You can buy them for 3 months or a year.
Assuming you are on monthly prescriptions, a good way to get the most out of them is to buy a 3 month card and make it effective from the day you are going to get your monthly package. They usually repeat every 28 days, so you can get 4 month's worth by getting the 4th package just before your card expires, as it is valid for 3 calendar months, which is longer than 3 x 28 days. Then you order a new 3 month card starting the day you'll get your next package.
Works for me!

dizziblonde

My brother has a tonne of varying medication and creams for his eczema (he quite often has prescription repeats running to 7 items or so because of a range of things he needs depending on how bad his skin is) - he's been getting these for years to keep the cost down - think our GP told him about them.

VfM4meplse

LittleMissKirsten wrote: »

Noone seemed to know about them. None of the hospital staff or Doctors told me they existed and the Nurses who I see every day didn't know you could get a pre-payment certificate at all. When I mentioned it to them afterward I got a blank stare and 'Oh, I didn't know you could do that' (!).

No surprise to me, neither are involved in the actual supply of meds to outpatients

LittleMissKirsten wrote: »

Not even the pharmasists had mentioned it. It was only through sheer luck that my mum heard about them and we did a Google search!

Now that it surprising, if there's any likelihood of exceeding the threshold in any given time, counter staff are normally only too pleased to help you save money buy buying a PPC before the script even reaches the dispensary!