BRATISLAVA, September 13, (WEBNOVINY) — Physicians will be obliged to prescribe medicines together with the active ingredient used for patients’ treatments. At the same time, they will also be able to state the commercial name of the drug on the prescription. Further, pharmacists will be obliged to offer a patient the least expensive available medicine with the active substance. However, the patient will be allowed to pick a different medication, rather than the drug offered. This stems from the new law on drugs and medical aids that parliament passed on Tuesday with 83 MPs having supported the bill. The piece of legislation still needs to be signed into law by the president.
Health insurance companies will inform physicians about what drug patients will eventually receive at least once a month. Physicians will only be responsible for correctly prescribed effective ingredients. Pharmacists and drug producers will be responsible for handing out the right drug and its quality. The law will thus implement facultative generic prescriptions and compulsory generic substitution.
The law also revises the applicable provisions on health care. The given sector will be liberalized thanks to simpler terms of business conduct. “In compliance with fundamental principles of a unified market, business in this sector will be liberalized,” stated the ministry. The liberalization should lie in simplification of business terms after some exiting approval procedures will be replaced by a notification of a relevant authority. At the same time, the liability level of individual subjects will increase and certain sanctions will be tightened.
The law also stipulates specific terms regarding Internet distribution of drugs and medical aids and revises regulations and terms for voluntary provision of discounts and bonuses for patients. After the legislation takes effect, the authorized special representatives of pharmacies cannot be charged with provision or promotion of the loyalty system to patients. Provision of discounts should be voluntary and if pharmacies decide to offer discounts to patients, 50 percent of discounts offered to patients also have to be shares with health insurance companies. Pharmacies will be obliged to provide discounts to all their patients regardless the health insurance company they have a contract with.
The Health Ministry presented the draft bill on drugs and medical aids at the end of March of this year. More than one thousand of remarks have been submitted to the proposed legislation with 400 being fundamental. The Slovak Medical Chamber first called on Prime Minster Iveta Radicova and then on MPs to withdraw the draft bill. Pharmacists claim that the legislation poses a threat to health and its approval will jeopardize the quality of professional health care and patients’ safety.
SITA