60-Day prescribing: what it means for people with asthma

60-day prescribing allows people to receive 60 days’ worth of their medicine on a single prescription, instead of the usual 30 days. This can help cut your medicine costs by up to a half and reduce the number of trips you need to make to the doctor and pharmacy. 

Asthma preventer medicines were included on the 60 day prescribing list as of 1st September 2024.

If your asthma is stable, you may be eligible to receive 60 days’ worth of your prescribed preventer at a time, for only one co-payment.  

To access 60-day prescribing, you will need a new 60-day prescription from your doctor. The prescription needs to be written as a 60-day prescription with the correct PBS code for your pharmacist to be able to dispense you the 60-day quantity of medicine. 

Cheaper preventer inhalers are great news for people with asthma. Preventers are critical for asthma treatment; they prevent symptoms, prevent decline in lung function, reduce the risk of flare-ups and improve quality of life. In turn, this can help to avoid needing rescue medicines, including reliever inhalers and oral corticosteroid tablets.

Most of the asthma medicines eligible for 60-day prescribing are preventers. You can search the list to see if yours is eligible here: Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) | 60-day prescriptions 

Reliever inhalers are not included in 60-day prescribing, because they are intended for short-term symptom relief rather than ongoing management. With greater preventer use, you won’t need to use a reliever so often.

Not everyone with asthma will qualify for 60-day prescribing. To be eligible, your doctor needs to assess your asthma as ‘stable.’  

This means: 

1. your doctor is comfortable with the stability of your health 
2. your doctor doesn't expect to need to change your medicines from the current prescription. 

Your doctor will consider factors like how often you experience symptoms, your lung function, and how well you manage your asthma each day. If your asthma is stable, your doctor may prescribe a 60-day supply of your medicine. You should still see your doctor for planned asthma reviews, to keep your asthma on track.  

If it’s not stable, now is the perfect time to review your asthma management with your doctor to get your symptoms under control.  

With 60-day prescribing, you can get 60 days’ worth of medicine for the price of one prescription* on eligible medicines. 

In Australia, the PBS helps reduce the cost of many essential medicines, making them more affordable. From January 1; 

• If you have a concession card, you’ll pay a maximum co-payment of $7.70 per prescription.  

• If you don’t have a concession card your maximum co-payment will be $25. 

Most asthma preventers are already capped at this maximum co-payment. So, with a 60-day prescription, you will get two inhalers* for your co-payment, instead of one.  

A person prescribed one PBS asthma medicine for $25 would pay $150 a year with a 60-day prescription instead of $300 if buying one at a time. 

*There are some exceptions as set out below

If your asthma medicine costs less than the maximum co-payment, you can still save money with a 60-day prescription.

There may be several reasons for this, and it’s recommended to ask your pharmacist for the right explanation. The reasons might include that your doctor may not have indicated the 60-day prescription code on the prescription. You might also have purchased a premium brand.  

Moving forward though, we would encourage you to talk to your doctor and community pharmacist about your desire to achieve stable asthma, and access effective medicines at the lowest price available. 

The PBS Safety Net is designed to provide further financial relief for people who need a lot of medicines. Once you’ve reached the Safety Net threshold—$277.20 for concession holders and $1,647.90 for others—your co-payments are reduced. After reaching the threshold, for the remainder of that calendar year concession card holders pay nothing for their PBS medicines, while others pay a reduced co-payment of $7.70.  

With the 60-day prescribing initiative, some people may save so much on their medicines that they no longer reach the PBS Safety Net threshold. This means you’ve spent less overall on your medicines.

The Closing the Gap (CTG) PBS co-payment program is another important initiative that helps reduce or remove the PBS co-payment for eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This program applies to all PBS medicines, including those approved for 60-day prescriptions. If you’re already benefiting from the CTG program and pay a reduced price or receive your PBS medicines for free, this arrangement will stay the same, even if your doctor prescribes a 60-day supply. This means you can continue to manage your asthma without any additional costs.