AIBU to be enraged about a £100 HRT fine?

[OnlyOneAdda]

Been on HRT for about 18 months ago, so have purchased HRT pre payment certificate. Each time I collect my prescriptions, I am asked to show my certificate as proof of payment.

I have just received a letter from NHS saying according to their records I have falsely claimed for a prescription and I will be fined £100. Have called them and provided my certificate number...turns out that one of the new medications my GP added six months ago isn't covered and I should have paid. The letter explicitly states that being mislead by the pharmacy is not a valid exclude.

WTAF? The pharmacy accepted it as payment. If this item wasn't eligible then they shouldn't have. If I go into a shop that doesn't accept AmEx they tell my at point of payment - they don't send me a £100 fine six months later and tell me I should have known better and used a different card.

If I've pre-paid my HRT then it should cover all fucking HRT. And if an item isn't payable by the means provided at the till then this should be flagged at point of sale!!!

Absolutely fuming 🤬 (and of course like most AIBU posts I actually just want you to agree with me 🤣 so if you think IABU then please scroll on and leave me to my menopausal rage...)

And don't get me started on the fact that men don't have to pay full stop for HRT, sanitary products etc. 🙄

I'm sorry this has happened to you OP, that's really frustrating. One of life's tricks.
I'm going to check mine now.

That's absolutely ridiculous, @OnlyOneAdda !

They push the HRT pre-pay, you buy it, you get HRT, you show your ciertificate for actual HRT, then they expect you to realise your HRT is now not covered? How ludicrous.

I have had HRT meds swapped frequently as they try to resolve one of the issues, and I swear it would never have occurred to me to check which ones were covered under which schemes.

(I have a couple of other prescriptions so I have the full pre-pay subscription, so in my case it's moot)

I think it’s the pharmacies fault not the GP.

Testoserone isn’t covered, I have a medical exemption for my thyroid condition but the pharmacy did try to tell me it wasn’t covered, and I knew that anyway but the pharmacy accepted it was ok as I have a medical exemption not an HRT pre payment. I only get 2 containers a year so it wouldn’t be a big deal to pay.

Sorry OP I have had this. I had not noticed that the prepaid certificate had expired. In essence you are banged to rights and you need to pay up. The documentation makes very clear that not realising a certificate had expired is no excuse as is that a medication was not covered. I think if you do not settle it gets worse. Annoying, but just right it off to experience.

Any other business where you show a pass, certificate or voucher would be able to tell you whether it is valid or not. The computer system should do it for them.

my pharmacy like to assume everyone has an exemption, I have no idea why. I bet lots of people get confused and fall foul of it.

Exactly.

Beside the point a bit, but I had no idea there was a PPC solely for HRT! I’m in Scotland, though.

I only knew because my son picks up my prescriptions and he rang last time saying the pharmacist asked whether it was the normal pre-pay or the HRT one.

Prescriptions are usually ‘free’ once you buy the prescription certificate thing in advance.

Why is the patient the one who has to wade through a list of stuff to find out if it’s free or not. I wouldn’t even know there WAS a list i had to look through, I’d presume I’d be told at the counter by staff who are dealing with prescriptions for eight hours a day, day in day out, and who understand this stuff if I had to pay. I’d trust them to tell me.

No need to say it’s not rocket science, it’s only not rocket science if you know a list exists in the first place. If you don’t know that you don’t know to look! So it might as well be rocket science!

Id still not be best pleased.

I think an expired certificate is slightly different (thought also empathise must have been really frustrating)...in this case the pharmacy (as usual) asked if I had a PPC, I showed it, she checked it including the expiry date.

Also frankly something that is designed to cover the costs of HRT but does not cover all HRT is not fit for purpose...

Paying each prescription individually would have been cheaper than a £100 fine!!!! FFS!!!

Sorry if I have menopausally missed you dealing with this question, but how were you supposed to know whether that drug was covered or not? Were you given a list, or told to check? Otherwise it sounds completely barking that you are being fined.

Do you have to pay for hrt treatment? I've got a prepayment certificate so don't even know if you do. I thought it was free?

I got caught out as well for 3 months when I assumed my PPC had automatically renewed but it hadn't and I got 3 fines!

YANBU
Enraged on your behalf!

I'm fuming for you OP.

If the pharmacist let you tick the HRT box on the script, then they don't know either.

There is a list online you can cross-check.

However, the same page:

• has a paragraph for pharmacists so implies they will have knowledge and oversight
• says all drugs licenses for HRT in the UK are covered - why is HRT being prescribed that is not licensed??

My understanding of all of the information / disclaimers (still this afternoon after re reading) was that anything prescribed for HRT would be covered and it meant that non-HRT meds were not covered and you needed the broader PPC if you had non-HRT stuff

I didn't even tick a box. I didn't make any false claims or answer any questions falsely intentionally or otherwise.

I went to the counter and said I had a prescription to collect (which had been sent through electronically). She asked if I had a PPC, I showed her, she checked it. She handed over the drugs.

Not sure this is the same because of course all know the difference between weekend and week day.

The pharmacist on the other hand should have known…

Thank you!

Sympathies @OnlyOneAdda , it sucks and I think lots of people will have made the same mistake. I had one and checked the list very carefully when my meds were changed and found it wasn’t covered. The pharmacist argued with me that it was, I had to pull it up on my phone to show her and her colleague to get them to believe me.
Even craper the GP wouldn’t change the detail on the script so I qualified. Just another fucking tax on being a women :-(.

@OnlyOneAdda I was sent one of these letters earlier this year. I phoned and spoke to a very human man who checked my records and agreed it was an honest mistake and all I had to do was to pay for the item in question ( which in fact they never followed up). He cancelled the fine.

In case it’s relevant to anyone my situation was that for many years I’ve had a monthly DD for my prepayment card as I have multiple prescriptions. Without my knowledge they cancelled the DD at the beginning of the year because I was going to turn 60 during the year. It was mad. So I genuinely thought I had the card ( it’s no longer a physical card) when I actually didn’t.

Anyway a phone call sorted it out.

We shouldn't even have to pay for HRT. YANBU

To be honest I got fined twice when I had paid for my dental treatment! I found the phone service to be really helpful at the NHS fines department - they took a dim view of my dentist practice when I explained I had paid, and they were more frustrated than I was. I thought it was just a simple error but they told me, no your dentist has essentially been paid twice for your treatment and they have basically made a fraudulent declaration. They essentially took it upon themselves to contact my dentist, confirm, then remove any fines or fees to me.

So I would recommend calling them and get in touch, the letters probably are automated and the actual people in the fines department might not be aware of what has actually happened.

Sorry OP this is on you. Whenever I renew my yearly exemption it's quite clear that you need to check if your particular HRT is covered.

Testosterone isn't HRT though. And it's not licensed as an HRT drug. It's been prescribed off licence for you, and you can't expect the NHS to cover something on a pre payment cert that isn't even licenced.

I think you do need to take responsibility to check these things yourself. I'm not on testosterone, but my GP did discuss it with and at the time she told me it wasn't covered by the cert (though I already knew).