Current State

As of February 1, 2026, the PCS FHIR standard has moved from a "draft" state to a "Trial Use" designation. In the fall of 2024, the "draft" PCS standard was subject to an open review by the large stakeholder group. This review resulted in many comments that have now been dispositioned and the PCS specification has been updated accordingly. A FHIR specification, with the Trial Use designation follows the HL7 definition, as shown below.

Trial Use Standard

HL7 has developed terms that describe the level of stability and implementation readiness associated with different aspects of the specification. Following is an excerpt from the HL7 website that describes a Trial Use Standard:

This content has been well reviewed and is considered by the authors to be ready for use in production systems. It has been subjected to ballot and approved as an official standard. However, it has not yet seen widespread use in production across the full spectrum of environments it is intended to be used in. In some cases, there may be documented known issues that require implementation experience to determine appropriate resolutions for.   

Stakeholder Review Period

The PCS FHIR standard will be open for public review from February 1, 2026 until April 30, 2026. At this point, all comments, questions and suggested changes will be reviewed and approved updates will be made.

PCS Publication History

Date	FHIR Release	Status	Notes
September 2024	Pharmacy Claim Standard,1.0.0	DRAFT	Initial release of the Canadian FHIR Pharmacy eClaims Standard
February 1, 2026	PCS version 1.0.0	Trial Use	Review Period - February 1 - April 30, 2026
Target Q2 2026	PCS version 1.0.1	Trial Use	Final Version, with all updates from the review