Claiming for COVID-19 costs

Community pharmacy contractors are able to claim for any additional costs incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contractors have until 23:59 on 15^th August 2021 to claim for additional costs they would have incurred between 1^st March 2020 and 31^st March 2021 from a set of specific categories whilst delivering NHS pharmaceutical services using the agreed claim form provided by the NHS Business Authority (NHSBSA). Contractors will receive an automated reply from NHSBSA to confirm their submission has been receive, this should be retained as evidence of the submission.

Payments will be paid to contractors on 1^st October 2021 for valid claims, providing pharmacy contractors have submitted their claims by 15^th August 2021.

There will also be an uplift for the advance payments, provided to contractors between 1^st April 2020 and 1^st July 2020, which will be recovered in six equal parts from 1^st October 2021 to 1^st March 2022. All pharmacies will be subject to the same repayment regardless of whether they make a claim for their COVID-19 costs.or not.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have set out four categories that can be claimed for:

	Category of costs	Includes	Excludes	Acceptable evidence
1	Additional staff costs due to COVID-19	Additional staff costs for backfilling staff that were ill, shielding or self-isolating due to COVID-19 Additional staff costs to deal with the increased demand/ time needed for the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services	Additional staff costs for regular (non COVID-19 related) absences Deferred annual leave Staff costs for Bank Holiday openings (funded separately)	Includes: Invoices for locums Overtime paid for staff Increased overall staff bill compared to previous years
2	Costs for making premises COVID-secure	Costs for COVID-19 related cleaning/hygiene products Costs for messaging and barriers Costs exceeding £300 for adjusting premises to support social distancing	PPE and hand sanitiser (provided/funded separately) Costs up to £300 for adjusting premises to support social distancing (funded separately)	Includes: Invoices/receipts
3	IT and communication costs to support remote working and virtual patient contact due to COVID-19	Hardware costs (e.g. phones, laptops, webcams) Software costs (e.g. software licences)		Includes: Invoices/receipts Additional evidence is required to demonstrate that the costs are COVID-19 related to justify these costs are as a result if COVID-19
4	Notified closures for infection control purposes (maximum 14 days)	Notified closures for infection control purposes where all staff had to self-isolate Notified closures for infection control purposes of pharmacies in health centres	Closures not notified to NHSE&I Closures not for the purpose of infection control Closures for business reasons Closures exceeding 14 days	Contractors are asked to specify the dates and number of days the pharmacy closed following notification of NHSE&I Following confirmation from NHSE&I that the contractor notified the closure and that the closure is in scope, contractors will be paid according to Drug Tariff determination document, click here.

Claims must be submitted to NHSBSA by completing the claim form and emailing to nhsbsa.covidclaims@nhs.net :

NHSBSA COVID-19 costs claim form

For more information on the COVID-19 costs claim and uplift of advance payments see:

Drug Tariff Part VIA – COVID-19 claims and recovery

For help and guidance on COVID-19 costs claiming:

PSNC COVID-19 Costs Background and NHSBSA claim form overview

PSNC further guidance and claim related FAQs

PSNC Online Workshop