Effective from 1st March 2017, the prescription levy for over 70s and their dependents is being reduced from €2.50 to €2.00, with the monthly cap coming down to €20 from €25.
This overnight change has caught everyone off guard, including the PCRS. While you can check the individual cards via the PCRS Pharmacy Application Suite, the interim plan is to provide pharmacies with a list of medical card holders who have attended their pharmacy from November 2016 to January 2017 and are eligible for the reduced levy.
Another possibility is to display a notice at the pharmacy tills and rely on patients to remind us. Once this gets mainstream coverage, most patients will be all too aware of it and we won't need to worry too much about it. The software vendors should come up with an update soon as well and the HSE circular is probably already on the way.