COVID-19 Home Medicine Service (HMS) Program cessation
The temporary COVID-19 Home Medicines Service (HMS) Program was first introduced in March 2020 to support and protect the most vulnerable members of our community from potential exposure to COVID-19 by providing funding to pharmacies for home delivery of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) medications, removing the need for a patient to visit a pharmacy.
This temporary HMS program will cease on 30 June 2022. All claims for services provided in June 2022 can continue to be submitted in the PPA Portal until the 31 July 2022 claiming deadline.
Please note for any claims that have not been submitted within their required claiming window due to exceptional circumstances, an Exceptional Circumstance (EC) request must be lodged with the PPA by no later than 31 August 2022. EC requests received for the HMS Program after this time cannot be processed.
The Department of Health and the PPA sincerely thank pharmacies for their involvement in the COVID-19 HMS Program over the course of the last two years.