Monthly payments

A  payment timetable and deadline tracker to assist pharmacy owners with checking and claiming payments for national services is available on the Payment timetable and deadline tracker page.

Early advance payment

As of November 2021, all community pharmacy contractors can receive earlier advance payments, following agreement between Community Pharmacy England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Early advance payments are made approximately 20 days earlier than the current payment timetable for contractors who make their monthly FP34C submissions through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by the 5th of the month.

The 100% advance payments (for early and current timetables) will continue to be based on the items declared on the FP34C and the latest available Average Item Value (AIV) for that pharmacy, less the value of prescription charges declared on the submission document. Contractors using MYS for submissions must include their paper Account Identifier Document and dispatch it alongside their bundle of paper prescriptions. The final reconciliation payment date remains unchanged i.e. this will be paid on the 1st working day of the month approximately two months after contractors have submitted the appropriate FP34C form and prescriptions for pricing.

The table below shows the earlier advance payment timetable dates for prescriptions dispensed over the next 12 months.

Advance payments for certain NHS services are also received on the same date as the early Advance payment for dispensed prescriptions. The service advance payments includes the consultation fees for Flu (adult), Covid-19, Pharmacy Contraception Service (including Emergency Contraception) and Hypertension Case-Finding Service (HCFS). Reimbursement for any items supplied in connection with the Flu (adult), Pharmacy First service and Pharmacy Contraception Service are also factored into the calculation of the main drug advance payment itself. Click here for more information on the service advance payments. Please note the potential cashflow impact due to the inclusion of Flu service to the advance payments.

Pharmacy owners who submit their FP34C declaration through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by the 5th of the month (or by the 6th if one or more bank holiday occurs during the first five days of the month) will  receive 100% of their advance payments four working days after the submission deadline. The 100% advance payments will continue to be based on the items declared on the FP34C and the latest available Average Item Value (AIV) for that pharmacy, less the value of prescription charges declared on the FP34C submission. 

The timeline on the below illustrates how the advance payment timetable will work for contractors who submit their FP34C by the 5th of each month:

*Note – In months where one or more bank holiday occurs during the first five days of the month, contractors will be given an extra day to submit their FP34C and dispatch their prescription bundle to the NHSBSA. For these months, the early advance payment date will remain as four working days from the extended FP34C submission deadline of the 6th. Pharmacy owners are reminded that the requirement to submit electronic Claim Notification (CN) messages or Electronic Reimbursement Endorsement Messages (EREMs) within the first 5 days of the following month remains unchanged.

If the FP34C submission form and prescription bundle is received very late by the NHSBSA (usually after the 20th of each month), contractors will not receive any advance payment but instead will only receive the final reconciliation payment. Please note an administrative deduction of £25 may apply if a paper prescription bundle is submitted late to the NHSBSA. 

Pharmacy owners should note that the final reconciliation payment date remains unchanged i.e. this will continue to be paid on the 1st working day of the month, approximately two months after contractors have submitted the appropriate FP34C form and prescriptions for pricing.  If the first of the month falls on a bank holiday or weekend, payment is brought forward to the nearest previous working day. The only exception to this is when 1st April falls on a weekend or bank holiday, in which case payment will be made on the next available working day and not brought forward to 31st March or earlier.

Normal payment option

An estimated 100% of the normal advance payment for prescriptions is made by the NHSBSA for prescriptions submitted one month earlier (dispensed two months earlier). Payments are made on the 1^st of each month, where this falls on a weekend or bank holiday payment will be made on the working day prior. MYS is the only route for all monthly submissions. Contractors who submit their figures after the 5th of the following month, will NOT receive any earlier advance payments but instead will receive advance payments in accordance with the current payment timetable i.e on or around the 1st of the month following submission. 

Normal payment option timeline:

For example, June payment will comprise of the 100% estimated Advance payment for prescriptions submitted in May (dispensed in April) with the full value of the priced prescriptions less the recovery of the estimated 100% Advance payment for prescriptions submitted in April (dispensed in March).

An administrative deduction of £25 may apply if a paper prescription bundle is submitted late to the NHSBSA. See here for more information.

In exceptional circumstances, where a contractor through no fault of their own is unable to submit the FP34C form through the MYS portal, contractors are advised to contact the NHSBSA either by emailing nhsbsa.mys@nhs.net or by contacting the MYS helpdesk number (0300 330 1368) between Monday – Friday (excluding bank holidays). Contractors should note that this route is available only for emergencies, which are related directly to the contractor (for e.g. connectivity issues/internet outage in the contractor’s area), and unrelated to the MYS platform itself.

Contractors, who will be using the email route, are advised that they must apply an electronic signature to the email to secure payment. Contractors, using the telephone route, are advised that the NHSBSA will contact the contractor via their preferred email address (provided to NHSBSA during the call), for them to confirm that the claim the NHSBSA noted via the phone call was correct, and the contractor must apply an electronic signature to the confirmation email to secure payment. An electronic signature may include a scanned image of handwritten signature added to the email sent to the NHSBSA. In case of the MYS platform being down, there will be instructions for contractors on the NHSBSA’s website on what to do.