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From April 1, patients' access to products paid for by the NHIF - in whole or in part - may be suspended.

This is clear from the position of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union. 

The union is dissatisfied with the development of the negotiations with the National Health Insurance Fund.

Pharmacists add that some NHIF proposals made during the contract process will limit patients' access to medicines.

"During the entire period of negotiations, the BFS met with a certain mistrust on the part of the NHIF regarding the use of all the technological capabilities of the National Health Information System and the systems of the NHIF for control at the time of dispensing medicinal products and preventing the improper spending of funds from the budget of NHSOC.

In addition, in the last week of the negotiations, demands for new amendments were made by the NHIF, which were not subject to discussion before," the organization specifies.

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They emphasize that the NHIF wants patients to be obliged to receive all the medicines prescribed by the doctor, but some patients cannot or do not want to buy them.

"When several medicinal products are prescribed on an electronic prescription, in conditions of shortages and increasingly common difficulties for patients to find certain specific products, the imperative impossibility to obtain at least those that are available is created. If the changes requested by the NHIF enter into force, patients' rights will be taken away and they will be charged with an obligation. The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union categorically refuses to participate in the creation of such restrictions, which contradict the basic legal principle of free access to health care, including access to medicinal products", they write in their position, quoted by BTV.

The pharmaceutical union points to another problem, namely the insistence by the NHIF that drug retailers be obliged to submit verification data to the Treasury as well, after the same verification data has already been provided by the Bulgarian Medicines Verification Organization.

"Secondly, in violation of national legislation and EU law, the NHIF wants to oblige drug retailers to submit verification data to the NHIF as well, after the same verification data has already been provided to them by the authority that administers the verification register - Bulgaria Organization for the Verification of Medicines (BOVL). The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union cannot support such a proposal, as it is contrary to the legal framework," the union states.

From April 1, 2023, there will be no signed and enforced Terms and Conditions for the activities of pharmacies, and they will not be able to dispense medicinal products fully or partially paid for by the NHIF. 

"The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union is faced with the hypothesis that from April 1, 2023, there will be no signed and enforced Terms and Conditions and pharmacies will not be able to dispense medicinal products fully or partially paid for by the NHIF, which will be another national crisis that we will face for the last two years. BFS is a responsible class organization of master pharmacists in Bulgaria and therefore informs about the problem, the institutions, the media and patients that from April 1, patients' access to products paid for by the NHIF can be suspended," the position reads.

They insist that all possibilities for technological control over the spending of the budget of the NHIF be introduced in the allocation of medicinal products, medical devices and dietary foods in compliance with the current legislation.

NHSOC

expensive drugs

The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union