Abstract
The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) database is a routinely collected, whole-of-population collection comprising data on the dispensing of medicines listed on the PBS, the Australian Government’s national drug subsidy program. The database was established for administrative and payment purposes but has been used for routine monitoring, surveillance, and research for many years.
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Notes
- 1.
Repatriation Gold Card holders (ex-prisoners of war, World War I and II veterans and mariners, and their war widows/widowers) and Orange card holders (eligible British Commonwealth and allied veterans and mariners) have full RPBS entitlements; White Card holders (other veterans and mariners) receive RPBS benefits for the treatment of specific conditions.
- 2.
Authority-only prescriptions require approval from SA before prescription of the medicine is permitted. Some of these authority-only prescriptions have ‘streamlined’ authorization, whereby provision of an authority code by the prescriber is sufficient for the medicine to be dispensed. This is in contrast to other authority-only medicines requiring telephone or written authorization from SA. Only streamlined authority codes are provided in the PBS database; telephone or written authorisation codes are stored in a separate authority approvals database.
- 3.
Indicates that all repeats are supplied at the same time (previously Regulation 24).
- 4.
Indicates ‘immediate supply necessary’ prescriptions, whereby additional or early repeat supply is permitted.
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Karanges, E.A., Litchfield, M.J., Mellish, L., Pearson, SA. (2021). The Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Dispensing Database. In: Sturkenboom, M., Schink, T. (eds) Databases for Pharmacoepidemiological Research. Springer Series on Epidemiology and Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51455-6_21
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