A pharmacist wishing to supply PBS medicines to the community, and claim reimbursement for those supplies from Government, must be approved under section 90 of the National Health Act 1953. If a pharmacist's application for approval is rejected because it does not meet the requirements of the Pharmacy Location Rules, the pharmacist may ask the Minister for approval.
Legislation previously required that the Minister first decide whether to consider the request, before additional information was obtained to allow the Minister to then decide whether or not to approve the request. The Minister had 3 months for each of these two stages.
The Health Legislation Amendment (Improved Medicare Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025, recently passed by Parliament, includes changes to the Minister's discretionary power. This change reduces the process to a single stage with a timeframe of 4 months in which the Minister must decide whether or not to approve the request.
An additional change prevents a request from being made to the Minister by the same pharmacist for the same location within 12 months of making a previous request.
These changes came into effect on 5 September 2025.
