3.21 Office-Use Medications

General Policy Description

Once enrolled as a PharmaCare provider, every pharmacy is assigned a unique office-use medication (O-Med) PHN and keyword. The O-Med PHN must be entered in PharmaNet when a pharmacy dispenses medications to practitioners to provide to patients in their clinic or office. Hospital outpatient pharmacies must request an O-Med PHN.

Policy details

O-Med PHN

Each pharmacy is assigned a unique office-use medication (O-Med) PHN when they enrol as a PharmaCare provider. A pharmacy must enter the O-Med PHN in PharmaNet when dispensing medications for a practitioner (physician, dentist, veterinarian or midwife) to provide to patients in their clinic or office.

O-Med PHNs cannot be used for stock transfers between pharmacies. Stock transfer functions are unique to each pharmacy’s local software. Pharmacies should direct any questions to their software vendor rather than to the PharmaCare Help Desk.

Pharmacies should not use the O-Med PHN when dispensing a prescription to a practitioner for the practitioner’s personal use. They should use the practitioner’s PHN instead. 

O-Med PHNs cannot be shared between stores.

If a pharmacy was not assigned, does not know, or has lost its O-Med PHN, the pharmacy may call the PharmaCare Help Desk to get their O-Med PHN.

Procedures

O-Med patient record

Before dispensing O-Meds, set up patient record(s) using your O-Med PHN.

• If your software allows multiple records under the same PHN, set up an individual patient record for each practitioner you dispense O-Meds to
• If your software does not allow multiple records under the same PHN, set up only one new patient record

Dispensing O-Meds

When entering PharmaNet claims for O-Meds, pharmacists should enter: 

• The pharmacy’s O-Med PHN and keyword
• The date of dispense 
• The correct quantity and practitioner number

If dispensing the same DIN more than once on the same day, use the intervention code UA to prevent receiving a “duplicate” message.

Once dispensed, PharmaNet returns:

• An “E1 Host Processing” error, which indicates that the claim has not been adjudicated, and no costs will accumulate toward a patient deductible
• A Drug Use Evaluation (DUE) message

Reversing O-Med transaction

O-Med transactions are reversed in the same way as other transactions. To reverse an O-Med transaction, use the O-Med PHN, the keyword, and the Intervention Code RE.  

For more information, visit Claims Reversals

O-Med medication history

A pharmacy may review its O-Med dispensing history in PharmaNet by using:

• Last 15 Prescriptions transaction (TRR) or
• PharmaNet Record Request transaction (TRP) for history beyond the previous 15 entries (this transaction may take some time)

Changing O-Med keyword

To change the keyword associated with an O-Med PHN, the pharmacy should call the PharmaCare Help Desk. The keyword can’t be changed through the pharmacy’s local system.

Questions about O-Med medication histories should be directed to the Ministry of Health’s PharmaNet Data Quality Services team at 1-844-660-3200.