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Certification confirms each supply of a PBS medicine complies with your legal obligations set out within the provisions of the:
- National Health Act 1953
- National Health (Supply of Pharmaceutical Benefits - Under Co-payment Data and Claims for Payment) Rules 2022 (Claims Rules).
Certification applies to all claims submitted to PBS including under co-payments.
Claims that remain uncertified
If a claim has been processed and determined but isn’t certified, you may need to repay the advance payment.
Timeframe to certify your claim period
Certification of a claim period is due 30 days from when the last prescription in the claim is submitted to PBS Online. To ensure accuracy and compliance with legislative requirements, you must close your claim within 30 days of the last supply.
For example, your claim period starts on 1 March and finishes on 29 March. This is 28 days. You have until 28 April to certify the claim which is 30 days.
Actioning certification of a claim
You can close claims using your dispensing software. Your software vendor can help you to identify and action claims that haven’t been certified. Ask your software vendor for assistance if it’s needed.
You can escalate requests for help when:
- you’re an approved supplier who’s tried to close the claim with your software vendor
- you can’t access the data in the identified claims period
- you’re a revoked approved supplier.
Escalate your request for help to PBS.CLAIMING.DESIGN@servicesaustralia.gov.au.
Additional Community Supply Support payments
Manually processed Additional Community Supply Support (ACSS) fee payments for claims certified and closed by 30 June 2025 have been finalised for eligible PBS supplies from 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2025.
We’ll continue to monitor outstanding ACSS manual payments for claims certified and closed by 31 December 2025. Payments for this period will be made in 2 additional payment cycles.
For claims certified and closed between 1 July 2025 and 30 September 2025, payments will be made by 31 January 2026.
For claims certified and closed between 1 October 2025 and 31 December 2025, payments will be made by 30 April 2026.
After 31 December 2025, approved suppliers who believe they may be eligible for ACSS fees from previously uncertified and unclosed claims can submit an enquiry to us. We’ll assess these enquiries on a case-by-case basis.
For medicines supplied from 1 July 2025, ACSS fees are assessed in real time using PBS Online Claiming and are included in your regular weekly PBS payments.
More information about the ACSS is available under the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website.
For payment enquiries, phone us.
Closing multiple claim periods
Due to system limitations pharmacies should only certify and close 20,000 PBS supplies claims per day. If you exceed 20,000 claims, there may be a delay to your weekly payment.