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. 🙄

It would have been different if OP tried to get a non HRT drug under an HRT certificate, but she didn’t.
She had an HRT pre paid certificate
She was prescribed HRT
The pharmacist who KNOWS this stuff gave it to her
Op’s certificate was checked
She went home.

I would challenge it.

Testosterone IS HRT. Just because it's not licenced for women yet doesn't mean it's not HRT!

I'm really sorry this has happened op.

I had no clue about this. I've checked and mine are covered.

The GP or pharmacy should have said something out of courtesy. I'm annoyed for you.

Hmmm interesting, I would expect that the system wouldn’t let you use the pass on a weekday and you would be refused access. I would absolutely put the burden on the provider and not the user

My GP doesn’t even prescribe the testosterone gel so I have to get that from a private prescription so if I want to have it it costs me £160 for the consultation and a further £100 for the gel. Outrageous. I had to give it up as too expensive.

@OnlyOneAdda

Men get hormone replacement therapy. They get testosterone replacement therapy. I know several men on it. I’m in Scotland so prescriptions are free but I’d assume English men have to pay for their prescriptions.

Its not on the list for the HRT prepayment certificate. I get free anyway as I have a medical exemption. And anyway as it’s a medicine for men women only use a tiny amount so you’d be paying £9.90 every 7 months.

Wouldn’t occur for me to check that my hrt meds are covered by my hrt certificate.
it wasn’t explained that not everything is covered

How do I find out if I still have a HRT PPC? The checker service is only for normal ones and the last email I can find shows it expired April 2024. Would they have caught up with me by now if I didn’t have one? Panicking!

I think it's a terminology issue. To me, it's not HRT because the NHS doesn't consider it to be HRT.

It is a hormone, for sure. But there are loads of hormones that don't form part of HRT but can be prescribed, insulin for example, thyroxin, melatonin.....etc.

It is explained on the website when you sign up for it.

NCT friend has this with her mat exemption prescriptions - she hadn’t officially been issued with a mat exemption certificate through no fault of her own - midwife/hospital had forgotten to issue one. Obviously she had been pregnant (all on record!) but she had to pony up for the fine. Shocking.

I’m worried now as I don’t think mine is. I started on Evorel Sequi but then GP moved me few months ago onto oestrogen patches and progesterone capsules. The latter are a brand which isn’t listed on the link even though a different “name” with the same description is. I’ll be furious if somehow that isn’t covered, it seems wholly unreasonable when I have no control over what the pharmacy gives me

It’s pretty clear on the website!!

You can use the oral tablets vaginally as well. It doesn't say it in the instructions, but my private HRT consultant advised me to when I couldn't tolerate it orally. The pessaries were covered when I got my first certificate, but annoyingly they've since removed them. I've been using the tablets vaginally since with no issues.

I’m in Scotland so all prescriptions are free but I am amazed that a pharmacy asks for payment, you show a certificate and say I think this covers if they just say “ok” rather than having a way to say whether it does or not!! Then someone in an office somewhere issues and chases up fines at a later date. It seems totally crazy!

This.

Hang on they asked if you had a ppc
That is this https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc
Totally different from hrt pcc

The second page of the online application form makes it very clear that not all HRT is covered and you even have to check a box to indicate that youv’e checked.
Clearly the issue here is that the OP bought the PPC and some time later added a new item without checking again that it was covered.

Ok done some googling and it seems that the full PPC does cover HRT although I’m not sure about testosterone

What worries me is that very often the item you were prescribed is out of stock, they wheel out an alternative, and you assume that as it's meant to perform the same function, it comes under the same prepayment exemption category. You don't know in advance you're going to be given a substitute, and to me it's reasonable to assume that the pharmacist conducting the transaction can see whether the item qualifies. If I have an HRT only prepayment certificate, they won't let me waltz off with bp medication without paying, will they? To me it's the same thing.

This is why I bought the general certificate because the actual allowed meds on the hrt one are a nonsense. The progesterone that I use- and the only one I can tolerate- is not listed . At least my pharmacy flagged this to me when I was deciding what pre payment to get

I’m completely jumping on here to derail the thread but I have no idea how any of this works. I’m not yet at peri / menopause age but I find it fascinating (or more like preparing myself mentally for the inevitable) so I find these threads fascinating.

Can someone tell me why on earth HRT would not be covered fully? If I’m reading correctly you have to pay a yearly ‘fee’ to get the help you need? Or is it that the certificate is cheaper per year than prescription fees?

Go to the pharmacy and they will sort it out for you. Do not pay the fine until you’ve spoken to someone at the pharmacy.

You’re not being unreasonable at all, that’s rage inducing! I’d be absolutely fuming too OP x