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Professional Matters Optometry & Dispensing

PCSE shares information on online upgrades in bulletin

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PCSE shares information on online upgrades in bulletin

The PCSE Team wanted to share a number of updates with you relating to the Ophthalmic Payments service from PCSE.

PCSE Online system enhancements

We’ve been listening to your feedback about the online claims system slowing down later on in the afternoons and we’re putting in a number of technical enhancements which should prevent the issues you’ve been experiencing. These will be deployed on Thursday 13 May and will also address the intermittent error with accessing statements.

Important note – Maintenance windows affecting access

There are two general maintenance windows and one major service deployment window scheduled for this month which will impact PCSE Online users being able to submit online claims during this time (please see next section on business continuity to understand how to submit online claims after these downtimes):

Please note these General maintenance window dates:

Sunday 9 May from 5pm until midnight (Technical fixes)
Thursday 13 May from 7pm until midnight (System enhancements)

Major service deployment window:

PCSE Online will be unavailable from 7pm on Friday 28 May until 10am Sunday 30 May. This is to enable the launch of a major new Payments and Pensions service for the GP sector. Further information will be provided on this in the coming weeks.
We appreciate this will cause disruption, but we have provided the following business continuity guidance to understand how best to submit claims generated during this time.

Business Continuity Guidance for online GOS

PCSE and NHSEI have published Business Continuity Guidance for Ophthalmic Contractors to ensure General Ophthalmic Services can continue when PCSE Online is unavailable, such as during system maintenance downtimes.

It’s important that all practice staff are familiar with the guidance available here.

Please take note of the additional advice relating to Performer Declarations for the major service deployment window at the end of May as mentioned above. Extra discretion has been agreed with NHSEI whilst the system is not available.

Update: Reducing rejected paper GOS claims

We know that there have been a number of issues with the rejection of forms in the new paper scanning process. We’re sorry for the impact these issues have caused contractors using paper claims and thank you for your patience.

We’re taking the following steps to address the underlying issues and reduce any financial impact on businesses and move contractors online:

We recently contacted anyone who had a significant percentage of GOS paper claims returned to outline the financial support arrangements we have put in place in agreement with NHS England and NHS Improvement.

In the meantime, we have introduced new manual quality checking systems to ensure that paper forms do not get incorrectly rejected and we are working with our scanning partner to introduce improvements to the solution as quickly as possible.

We’ve also provided additional support materials to help practice staff complete paper forms correctly. In addition to the video guides and top tips on completing paper forms we shared earlier in the year, we have produced a desk aid that can be printed off for staff to refer to which you can access here.

We’re proactively contacting all contractors who use paper forms to offer guidance to help them make the move to join the 90% of contractors who are now submitting online claims.

If we haven’t contacted you yet and you would like some support with switching to online submissions please get in touch with us

Submitting Pre-Registration Training Grant Claims

We wanted to update you on how to submit a pre-registration supervisor training grant. If you’re an ophthalmic contractor who is providing supervision of the training of a pre-registration optometrist, you should complete the new claim form which now requires your practice ODS code, and submit it as an attachment via https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/

The allowance paid to contractors is set out by the Department of Health on an annual basis, and PCSE processes these claims on behalf of NHS England.

It was recently announced that the allowance would be increased to £3,762, which applies to claims from trainers taking on pre-registration trainees on or after 1 April 2021. The rate for claims in respect of trainees who started before 1 April 2021 is £3,692.

This month we will start processing training grants via the new system and the payment will appear on your PCSE Online statement.

It’s important that the form is filled in correctly so please be aware that you must:

• Click ‘Yes’ in the option shown (see our example online )so the claim follows the correct process
• Add your 5-character ODS code as this is the key identifier for the claim to be paid.

If you do not know the ODS code for your practice you can visit the ODS Portal and enter the name or postcode of your practice.

Issuing a GOS 3

We want to remind you that you must print a GOS 3 voucher from PCSE Online to give to a patient to take to another practice. You must do this to comply with the regulations.

Unfortunately, you must not just give the patient the voucher code and authorisation code. A PDF of the GOS 3 form must be printed if the patient wants to take their voucher for dispensing elsewhere.

You can find out more information about how to do this by reading our helpful guide.

Old style paper claims

Please note that the Open Exeter system used for processing old paper claims is due to be decommissioned at the end of July which means if you’ve got any old style claims i.e. for sight tests conducted before 1 February 2021, you must submit these as soon as possible so we can get them processed and paid.

Here are some useful links from the bulletin:

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