# Drugs Payment Scheme = Drugs Refund Scheme ?



## zag (21 Jan 2005)

Can anyone confirm whether the drugs payment scheme and the drugs refund scheme are the same thing ?

I have a number of receipts from last year which include either phrase.  I think it may have been a timing thing where the scheme changed name, but I can't find any reference to this change.

Oasis has no reference at all to 'drugs refund scheme', but it is definitely printed on some of the pharmacy receipts from last year.

Cheers,


z


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## Obi Wan Kenobi (21 Jan 2005)

Yes Zag - they are one and the same.  Just a name change from Refund to Payment


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## cobalt (21 Jan 2005)

*drugs payment scheme v. drug refund scheme*

The Drug Refund scheme was actually the name for the old scheme where you paid the full cost for all your meds and could then retrospectively claim back any excess over £90 per quarter. It ran alongside the Drug Cost Subsidisation Scheme which was a bit like the existing Drugs Payment Scheme (i.e. patient only pays up to a threshold value and the _pharmacy_ reclaims the balance), but the DCSS only operated for people with chronic expensive conditions.

The DR scheme and the DCSS were then merged to give the current Drugs Payment Scheme, which has been running since 1st July 1999, so all your receipts from last year should really read DPS. However, when the pharmacy puts them through, they may sometimes accidentally choose DR rather than DPS from the menu. (This could also be done deliberately if you hadn't registered for the DPS, but I'd say you probably had by last year.) But the terminology won't make any difference if you want to use the receipts for a tax refund or something.


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