Pharmacy First: Have you claimed for your March-May consultations?

As announced last month, Pharmacy First consultations carried out in March, April and May 2025 must be claimed by 11.59pm on 30th June 2025 to receive payment. Pharmacy owners are encouraged to check that all claims for this time period have been submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority on the MYS portal for payment.

This change to the claim window, follows the announcement as part of the contractual settlement for 2025/26 that to enable the variable monthly payment for Pharmacy First, the claim window would be reduced to one month from 1st June 2025.

Before 1st June 2025, late submissions were accepted if made within three months of the date by which the claim should have been submitted. Since 1st June 2025, late submissions are only accepted if they are made by the final day of the month following the month in which the Pharmacy First consultation was conducted. For example, claims for consultations provided in June 2025 will need to be submitted by 11.59pm on 31st July 2025. As detailed above, this change from 1st June 2025, also impacts on the claim periods for Pharmacy First consultations carried out in March-May 2025.

Later claims will not be paid, unless the submission of a claim was delayed by IT issues outside the pharmacy owner’s control (such as issues with the NHS approved API system used by the pharmacy owner or with the MYS portal). Such claims will be accepted outside the usual grace period within twelve months of the date by which the claim should have been submitted. This is subject to the NHSBSA receiving evidence of the IT issue, and only if investigation finds that the evidence demonstrates that the IT issue was outside the control of the pharmacy owner, and it delayed the claim submission.