Prescription Non-Payment Fine

Abbafan1972

Hi there,

Husband has received a fine from NHS prescriptions today for £52 odd (£8.80 plus Admin charge).

We don't know what this is from, the letter gives a date range of 23rd August - 5th October.

I normally pick up the prescriptions and sign the back of the form. Hubby's last prepayment certificate expired on 31st May and I haven't tried to use it.

We think it's from the flu jab, hubby is entitled to it for free as he has COPD, but on this occasion he couldn't get an appt at the docs and booked it at Asda pharmacy, at the time hubby asked if he had to pay and the pharmacist said no, he'd deal with the paperwork. We can't remember what date flu jab was but think it was within this date range.

He has already been down to Asda pharmacy to see if they can shed any light on it, but they don't know, they said once the prescriptions have gone off to NHS they've gone, but when hubby called the NHS to find out the date and what the prescription was, they said we have to query it with the pharmacy, but of course, they don't know.

Has anyone else had this happen to them, what did you do, should we just pay it and forget about it? I'm mega annoyed.

ETA:- Asda pharmacy told hubby to come back tomorrow when the Pharmacy manager is in.

pmduk

Fllu jabs don't attract a prescription charge, so it'll be something else.Hubby has had no prescriptions, or Drs appts since May?

I'm surprised Asda pharmacy keep no patient records.

tacpot12

Did your husband sign an NHS Prescription form at the Asda Pharmacy? If so, which box did he tick to say he was exempt from prescription charges?

You husband should ring the NHS up and ask them to confirm the date on the prescription form and which box was ticked. Ideally get them to send a picture of it to him. They might baulk at doing so, but he should formally record that he is challenging the Penalty Charge and needs the prescription form to determine if he is liable for the charge.

Visiting Asda doesn't sound like it is going to be much use unless Asda keep electronic copies of the prescriptions they send to the NHS, and they've more or less said that they don't.

What I don't know is whether the Flu Vaccine, when administered at a pharmacy, is paid for via a prescription. (I've seen some information that suggests it is not, at least as far as the pharmacist is concerned, and the previous poster also confirms not.) If Asda completed a prescription when none was required, then Asda should pay the fine. They could 'refund' your husband this so that he can pay the fine and be done with it.

CakeCrusader

He would have filled a form in before he had the flu jab, which has a tick box for long term respiratory problems, there isn't a prescription for it. The pharmacy send the completed forms to the NHS and they are paid for the jabs. He should be able to call the number on the letter and they should let him know what the fine is for.

Abbafan1972

He has already called the NHS prescriptions people and they have already said they can't give the date or what it was for, but to refer to the Pharmacy. Surely they can't do this and just expect you to pay it without challenging.

Yes, he has been to the doctors since May - I was just saying that his last prepaid certificate expired 31st May, so this box shouldn't have been ticked, I always fill in the bottom bit of the prescription to say the charge has been paid. He has Simvastatin tablets, plus inhalers and more recently some B12 injections.

Asda pharmacy said that all the prescriptions get sent off once a month and they don't have record of what the charge relates to, which I find hard to believe!

photome

The NHS are levying the fine therefore they must know what it’s for, they can’t just say it’s for something in a date range. At least they should not be able to

JJ_Egan

NHSBSA levy the fine .
Note that if its not paid or challenged within xx days a further penalty can be added .


https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/contact-us

Abbafan1972

JJ_Egan wrote: »

NHSBSA levy the fine .
Note that if its not paid or challenged within xx days a further penalty can be added .


https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/contact-us

I don't know what levy the fine means, but I do know they add a charge if not paid or challenged.

Mojisola

There was an item on MoneyBox today - a woman paid for her prescription but one of the boxes on the back of the form got ticked (she doesn't know how that happened) to say she was entitled to free prescriptions.

Fortunately, she had paid with her credit card and was able to prove that she had paid for it and the fine was cancelled.

ceb1995

If you can prove that all prescriptions he's had since may have been paid for then you can challenge it that way.
He should go in and ask to look at his patient record, they won't have copies off the prescriptions as they are sent off every month for payment (a requirement from the nhsba and they don't make copies of electronic prescriptions sent off as they can tell what was put on the electronic prescription from their pmr) but what they will be able to say is the date all his prescriptions were dispensed so you can hopefully figure it out from there if you paid by card for each of those items.
It's unlikely but it is a possibility one of the pharmacy staff could have marked it as prepayment when they claimed it rather than changing it to paid once his card ran out.

pinkshoes

This was on the bbc news this morning about the NHS issuing fines for fraudulent claim of free prescriptions.

Apparently it costs them millions each year.

If you are being fined then they need to prove it. They should provide the date that a free prescription was claimed.