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Tag: pharmaceuticals
Returning of surcharges for the third quarter will affect 17.689 disabled and retired patients. Health insurance companies according to protective limit on payments for drugs should return € 311.129. Policyholders will get pay automatically, it is not necessary to apply for them. General Health Insurance Company (Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa) will pay to 13.432 policyholders amount of € 237.588. Health Insurance Company Dôvera sent back supplements in the amount of € 58.777 to 3.407 policyholders. Union Health Insurance Company reimbursed to 850 policyholders € 14.764. The information was provided by health insurance companies.
Changes in pricing of pharmaceuticals were confirmed by 76 Members of Parliament yesterday. According to amendment to Act on pharmaceuticals, the price in Slovakia should be not higher than the average of the three lowest prices in the European Union. This principle is also related to medical devices and dietary supplements. Members of Parliament also approved the proposal of chairman of Health Committee Richard Raši (Smer-SD). He proposed that pharmacists could give discounts on surcharge to patients. As finally results from the amendment, the discount can be up to half of the surcharge.
Factory producing pharmaceuticals in Hlohovec is being bought by the Czech-Slovak investment group Wood & Company. Final contract on the take-over of the factory was allegedly already signed. Financial group has created a new separate company – Wood Pharma Holding, for taking over of the factory. Financial group is taking over the biggest Slovak pharmaceutical factory with almost 1 000 employees and with annual revenues exceeding € 200 million.
Top 30 most often prescribed pharmaceuticals will get from January significantly more expensive in consequence of proposed measures of the Government. They include for example the pharmaceuticals for asthmatics, cardiac patients, but also for oncological patients. This results from the calculations of political party SDKÚ-DS, which were reported by Vice President Viliam Novotný. According to these calculations the changes would currently apply to 1 037 of almost 5 200 categorized pharmaceuticals. 222 of them would get cheaper and 815 would have a higher price.
Healthcare acts on pharmaceuticals submitted to the negotiation of the Parliament are according to Viliam Novotný not in the interest of patients, but in the interest of lobbyists, profits of pharmaceutical companies and in the interest of the part of pharmacists, who do not want to provide the bonuses. The submitted legislation proposal is according to him missing the analysis of whether the prices of pharmaceuticals will due to the change of referencing decrease, or increase. Novotný, however, claims that pricing proposed by the Ministry of Health will lead to increasing of surcharges for pharmaceuticals for the sick and elderly people.
Surcharges of patients for some pharmaceuticals, which have increased after implementing of so called clustering of pharmaceuticals, should decrease next year. Ministry of Health has submitted the proposal of the change of Decree, which adjusts the way of determination of particular clusters. Payment for pharmaceutical should also not be set only by the cheapest one in the group, but it should also be the second or third one.
Current management of Ministry of Health does not consider the actual grouping of pharmaceuticals as ideal and result of this is, according to Ministry, a situation when surcharges for pharmaceuticals are decreasing. Ministry has thus prepared the proposal of the Decree, which should in future prevent such a situation. Decree adjusting the methods of setting of maximum amount of payment from health insurance company for the standard amount of pharmaceuticals included in categorization list of pharmaceuticals is currently in the commentary proceeding.
The case of lack of oncological pharmaceuticals from June this year should never be repeated again. Ministry of Health plans to prevent it by monitoring of the export of pharmaceuticals. In the case of possibility of lack of pharmaceuticals on our market the State Institute for Drug Control will prohibit the re-export. As she added, it is not any undue interference into the free business of pharmaceutical companies.
Bonuses and discounts, offered by pharmacies in loyalty systems, will probably end next year. Government has approved the proposal of Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská, which prohibits them. Pharmacies will be able to offer the discounts by over-the-counter pharmaceuticals even after the governmental ban only if they would not mean a bonus for purchasing of prescription pharmaceuticals. If Parliament and President will approve this amendment, also the purchasing of vaccines and determination of the prices of pharmaceuticals on prescription will be changed.
Pharmaceuticals for cardiac, diabetic and allergic patients will be cheaper. Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská is planning from the next year to decrease the surcharges of patients at the expense of health insurance companies. These will annually pay for pharmaceuticals totally € 4 million more than in the past. This is involved in the amendment to the Decree, which Zvolenská intends to submit to the commentary proceeding. Zvolenská is adjusting the rules set by her predecessor Ivan Uhliarik.
