We are changing two regulations that will stop these practices with differences in the prices of unregistered medicines, which currently seem legal, but are extremely unacceptable, immoral and inadmissible. This was announced at a briefing after the meeting of the Council of Ministers by the acting Minister of Health Mihail Okoliyski, quoted by Dariknews.bg
„The Ministry of Health is working on a very important problem related to the regulation of the prices of unregistered medicines that concern the treatment of children, i.e. so-called off-label drugs. In the past, they were regulated and dispensed by the so-called Children's Treatment Fund, and now this is a unit located in the NHIF. Over the years, very large discrepancies have been found in the prices of these medications from different medical institutions. What we are currently doing is to change two regulations that will stop these practices, which currently seem to be really legal, but are extremely unacceptable and immoral“, said Okoliyski.
He recalled that inspections have already begun in seven state hospitals, as well as in other medical institutions - in Sofia and Plovdiv. So far, they have shown differences in prices of tens of thousands of leva for the same medication. The final results are expected to report differences of millions of euros, Okoliyski noted.
The minister pointed out that the problem is related to medications paid for through mechanisms to the National Health Insurance Fund, where serious discrepancies have been found over the years price differences between different medical institutions. According to him, changes are being prepared in two regulations to limit these practices, as well as the publication of complete information about the purchased medicines, their prices and the medical institutions by the Ministry of Health and the NHIF for the purpose of transparency.
Okoliyski specified that the NHIF is not an investigative body, but if irregularities are found, the competent institutions will be notified. According to him, such price differences lead to inefficient spending of public resources and limit the possibility for more children to receive the necessary treatment.
Regarding the talks with the Bulgarian Medical Union, the Minister indicated that the Ministry of Health supports the indexation of underfunded clinical pathways and participates as a mediator in the dialogue between the union and the NHIF to reach a consensus.