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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 is due 30 days from when the last claim in a claim period is submitted to PBS online by the approved supplier.
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
Additional Community Supply Support (ACSS) payments can only be made for supplies in claim periods that have been certified and closed. More information about the ACSS is available under the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) on the Department of Health and Aged Care website.
ACSS fees are currently paid to eligible suppliers in quarterly manual payments. We’re making changes to PBS systems to allow ACSS fees to be paid as part of your regular PBS payments for PBS medicines supplied on, or after, 1 July 2025. You don’t need to do anything for this to happen. You may receive a final manual payment around September 2025 to cover any eligible supplies, supplied before 1 July that haven’t previously been paid.
Make sure you’ve certified and closed your claims by 30 June 2025 to allow them to be included in the final manual payment.
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.