site.btaPharmacies Will Get BGN 21 Mln for Fully Reimbursed Medicines in July 1-August15

Over BGN 21 million from the National Health Insurance Fund reserve will be disbursed to pharmacies for prescription medicines that are fully reimbursed from July 1 to August 15, 2024, caretaker Health Minister Galya Kondeva said during Question Time on Friday.

Kondeva mentioned that a new payment system was implemented for fully-reimbursed medicines from July 19, 2024. This also included new rules for prescribing and dispensing these medicines.

The extra funding, which the Health Gund will now cover from its reserve, are included in the NHIF budget for 2025, Kondeva said.

At the end of July, the acting Director of the NHIF Momchil Mavrov said there might be delays in payments from NHIF to pharmacies for July and August. At the beginning of July, NHIF and the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union (BPhU) agreed on a new payment method to pharmacies, as the BGN 36 million allocated in the fund's budget for this year was depleted by mid-year due to an increase in the number of prescriptions.

This follows a dispute between pharmacies and NHIF in July, where some pharmacies threatened to protest against changes to the payment model. NHIF and BPhU have since agreed on the payment model.