Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS)

Introduction

The Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) administers payments to doctors, pharmacists, dentists and opticians who provide services under the PCRS scheme. All aspects of the management and operation of the PCRS are operated through the Health Service Executive (HSE).

This scheme was previously called the General Medical Services Payments Board, usually referred to as the GMS.

The PCRS scheme includes medical card services provided by doctors and pharmacists, prescribed drugs and medicines services provided by community pharmacists and dental services and opthalmic services provided to medical card holders.

Doctors, pharmacists, dentists and opticians have contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide these services and the PCRS makes the payments on behalf of the HSE. The level of payments and other conditions of service are negotiated by the Department of Health and the relevant professional bodies.

The PCRS issues Annual Reports with information and statistics on all the primary care services it supports. You can view up-to-date data about these services on the PCRS Reporting and Open Data Web Portal.