Dose Administration Aids

Dose Administration Aids (DAA) are provided with the aim of assisting people with the management and timing of their medicines. A DAA is a well-sealed, tamper-evident device that allows individual medicine doses to be organised according to the prescribed dose schedule.

A Dose Administration Aid (DAA) is defined as a well-sealed, tamper-evident device that allows individual medicine doses to be organised according to the dose schedule determined by the Patient’s prescriber. There are a number of Dose Administration Aid systems available on the Australian market.

Pharmacy

To be eligible to receive payments under the DAA Program, a Community Pharmacy must:

  • Be approved under the National Health Act 1953
  • Be accredited by an approved Pharmacy Accreditation Program (the Quality Care Pharmacy Program), be in the process of completing accreditation, or have an exception from the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department)
  • Agree to publicly display and comply with the Community Pharmacy Service Charter and Customer Service Statement, available from the Resources page
  • Abide by the Pharmacy Programs Administrator General Terms and Conditions
  • Deliver DAA services in accordance with the current DAA Program Rules, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Professional Practice Standards (PSA Standards) and the Pharmacy Board of Australia Guidelines for Dispensing of Medicines
  • Register for the Program via the Pharmacy Programs Administrator Portal
  • Continue to meet the Eligibility Criteria outlined in the DAA Program Rules while participating in the Program.

Patient

To be eligible for a DAA service under the Program, a Patient must:

  • Hold a Medicare card and/or Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) card, or be a person who is eligible for a Medicare card
  • Live at home in a community setting
  • Have a valid government-issued concession card; and
    • Have difficulties managing their medications due to literacy or language issues, physical disability or cognitive difficulties; or
    • Be taking five or more prescription medicines and be experiencing difficulties with medication management.

A person is not eligible for a DAA service funded under this Program if they are currently:

  • An In-Patient at a public hospital, private hospital, day hospital or transition care facility
  • A resident of an Aged Care Facility or a correctional facility; or
  • Already receiving funding from other government-funded DAA programs, such as the DVA DAA Program.

Please note: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients may instead be eligible under the uncapped Indigenous DAA Program. More information can be found here.

All Approved DAA Service Providers will be allocated an individual weekly cap. As of 1 July 2024, the weekly base cap will be 90 DAA Services per week.
Please note: DAA Services can only be claimed for one of either the DAA Program or the Indigenous Dose Administration Aids (IDAA) Program, depending on the Patient’s eligibility. A Service cannot be claimed under both Programs.

Claim Submission

Approved Providers must submit eligible claims on a monthly basis, subject to the following requirements:

  • The Patient’s medicine/s in the DAA are dispensed and packed in the Pharmacy by the claiming Approved Provider, in accordance with the relevant quality standard; or
  • The Patient’s medicine/s in the DAA are dispensed by the claiming Approved Provider but are packed at another site that meets the Pharmacy Approval Authority requirements in the relevant state or territory as well as the relevant quality standard.

DAA services must be claimed by the end of the calendar month after the service is delivered (e.g. services provided in May must be claimed by 30 June). Claims submitted outside this time frame will not be paid. For the purposes of claiming, a single DAA service is defined as the provision of any number of packs required by that Patient to adequately assist with their medication for that week. A single claim is made regardless of the number of packs required. For clarity:

  • If a Patient receives a part-pack for the week after initiating a DAA or having been discharged from a hospital or facility, this is equivalent to one service
  • If a Pharmacy supplies a DAA that is subsequently altered or changed midweek, this is equivalent to one service
  • If a Patient requires multiple DAAs each week due to the volume of medicines, compatibility of medicines, the number of dosing times per day, or other factors, this is equivalent to one service.

The following information must be provided to the Pharmacy Programs Administrator in order to claim a payment:

  • Patient’s Medicare/DVA Card Number
  • Start Date of the DAA pack
  • A declaration by the claiming Approved Provider that all applicable Program Rules and criteria have been met.

Approved Providers must gain consent from Patients to collect this data in accordance with the Program Rules. This information will be used by the Pharmacy Programs Administrator and the Department to evaluate the DAA Program.

Payments

Payments will be made in accordance with the table below:

Payment (per Patient) Description
$6.17 Provision of weekly DAA service for all eligible Patients who receive a DAA service

Record Keeping and Auditing

Participating Pharmacies must keep all relevant records for seven years, including service records, claim records and Patient information. The records may be electronic or hard copy. The Pharmacy Programs Administrator is responsible for auditing the DAA Program. If an audit is conducted, the Approved Provider will be required to produce supporting documentation. Providers found to be in breach of the DAA Program Rules may be subject to penalties.

Dose Administration Aids FAQ

  1. Please refer to the Portal User Guide – DAA that is available from the Program Rules and Other Downloads section of this page.

  2. No, but you can cut and paste from an Excel spreadsheet into the Portal.  You can cut and paste all records at once, you don’t need to do it line by line.  If you used to upload a .csv file, you can open this in Excel and cut and paste from there. Please see the Portal User Guide – DAA for instructions.

  3. The format of the spreadsheet must be correct for the cut and paste to work.  Please check that:

    • Your spreadsheet has two columns, the first for Medicare/DVA number and the second for date of service
    • Medicare numbers are 11 numbers long, with no dashes or slashes between numbers.  If you do need to remove other characters, you don’t have to delete them one by one.  You can use the ‘Find and Replace’ feature in Excel, and replace the characters with nothing. For instructions from Microsoft on how to use this feature, click here
    • The date format must be DD/MM/YYYY, i.e. 01/02/2019 is 1 February 2019.  If your date is not in this format, please change the date column to ‘Short Date’ format
    • Your spreadsheet does not have blank rows between records.  You don’t need to delete these rows individually, just sort your spreadsheet by either the Medicare/DVA number or Date columns and these blanks will be moved to the bottom and you should be able to copy and paste all the relevant records.

  4. If you get this message for all rows, it means you have already successfully submitted your claim.  You can check this by navigating to the View Claims tab after you’ve selected the DAA Program, then selecting Service Claim from the Claim Type drop-down on the left side of the screen.  This will show you all of your previous claims.  If you click on the View Claims icon on the right of the screen for each claim, it will show you all the patients you claimed for on that date.

  5. Please see the Program Rules available from the Program Rules and Other Downloads section of this page.

  6. In some instances, yes. Please refer to the Program Rules available from the Program Rules and Other Downloads section of this page, or contact the Support Centre for additional information.

  7. The Department has allocated each pharmacy an individual weekly cap. Pharmacies new to the Program have a base cap of 90 DAA Services per week from 1 July 2024. DAA cap reviews may be considered by the Department as a part of future evaluation of the program.  DAA services that exceed the weekly allocated cap will not be remunerated under the program. However, Service Providers may charge the consumer for these services at their own discretion, except if the DAA service is being provided through a Remote Area Aboriginal Health Service. For further information, please refer to the DAA Program Rules.

    Please note: A pharmacy location change will result in a re-set to the base weekly cap of 90. If you are still servicing the same clientele following your location change, you may be entitled to retain your pre-location change cap. A member of the Support Centre will discuss this process with you.

  8. DAA cap reviews may be considered by the Department as a part of future evaluation of the program.
    The PPA are not involved in making decisions regarding individual pharmacies’ base caps and do not have the ability to review caps.

  9. Each provision of a DAA Service for eligible Patients is paid $6.17.  For further information about what constitutes an eligible service, please refer to the Program Rules.

  10. No, eligible Patients must hold a current government issued concession card. Holders of the following eligible concession cards are eligible under the DAA Program:

    – Pensioner Concession Card;
    – Commonwealth Senior Health Care Card;
    – Health Care Card (including Low Income Health Care Card); or
    – Department of Veterans’ Affairs Gold, White or Orange Cards.

    Please note the PBS Safety Net Card is not classified as an eligible concession card under the Program.

  11. Claims are due by the end of the calendar month after the DAA Service was performed. For example, DAAs provided in March would be required to be submitted on the Pharmacy Programs Administrator Portal by the end of April.

  12. Yes, however the DAA must be claimed by the pharmacy that dispenses the medicines for the DAA pack and provides the DAA to the patient. Please refer to the Program Rules, available from the Downloads section of this page for more information.

  13. If you are currently using an Excel file to manage your DAA claim then yes, you will be able to copy Patient data from previous claims into a new claim.  For instructions please see the Portal User Guide – DAA.

  14. Once you have successfully registered for the DAA Program, you can view your current weekly DAA cap in the PPA Portal.
    Refer to Section titled “Viewing Your Current DAA Cap” in the DAA Portal User Guide for more information.

  15. No, they are not eligible.

  16. The start date of the pack.

  17. No. Providing that both your pharmacy and your patients meet the eligibility criteria under the IDAA Program you can instead begin claiming these DAAs under the uncapped IDAA Program. 

  18. No. The IDAA Program is a standalone Program in the PPA Portal. You will need to ensure you are separately claiming services for patients under the correct Program. Your DAA professional services software may have a way of differentiating your IDAA and DAA patients into different Excel spreadsheets for claiming purposes. Please contact your DAA software provider for further information.

Dose Administration Aid Program Resources


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