Exclusive
Status: 01/10/2023 06:00 a.m
Health Minister Lauterbach had promised to quickly remedy the shortage of children’s medicines. But his plans were not initially agreed with the health insurance companies. Now, according to information from ARD Capital Studios a solution.
Empty drawers in pharmacies where antipyretics for children should actually be. Desperate parents who travel to Holland to stock up on medicine for their sick children. Such conditions put Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach under pressure in December.
With a key issues paper, Lauterbach wanted to present a quick solution, especially for children. The price rules for important medicines for children should be relaxed. Lauterbach wanted to instruct the health insurance companies to pay up to 50 percent more than the current fixed amount for pediatric medicines. “The short-term effect on the children will be immediate,” he said, causing confusion.
Fixed amounts are to be suspended at short notice
Shortly thereafter, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds said that there was still no clear legal basis for bearing the additional costs for pediatric medicines. The fixed amounts would be determined according to a procedure laid down in the Social Security Code, which the GKV could not simply avoid.
Now there is a timely solution. According to information from ARD Capital Studios The fixed prices for certain finished medicinal products for children with the active ingredients ibuprofen and paracetamol and for antibiotics that are available as suppositories or in liquid form are to be completely suspended for three months from February 2023.
Possible surcharges should be eliminated in the short term
“In this way we are creating the conditions for counteracting a further deterioration in the tense supply situation with pediatric medicines in the short term,” says the GKV. The regulation can only apply from February so that the data implementation in the pharmacies can be coordinated and guaranteed.
The suspension of the fixed amounts affects a total of 180 children’s medicines, including ibuprofen juices, paracetamol suppositories and antibiotics. For pharmaceutical companies, the regulation could be an incentive to deliver more due to higher prices. For insured persons, the regulation means that possible additional payments are omitted in the short term. Additional payments are the difference between the fixed amounts previously covered by the health insurance companies and possible higher pharmacy sales prices.
No more discount agreements for children’s medicines in the future
In the key issues paper presented in December, Lauterbach envisages, in addition to short-term measures for children’s medicines, a long-term reduction in cost pressure in the production of off-patent medicines. Because the health insurance companies have so far concluded discount agreements with the cheapest provider for many medicines. In order to avoid supply bottlenecks, there should no longer be any discount agreements for medicines for children.
In the case of off-patent medicines, including for adults, such as antibiotics or medicines to treat cancer, the production of active ingredients in the EU is to be strengthened. In the future, therefore, the cheapest provider will no longer be the only choice. Instead, in the case of important pharmaceuticals, the cheapest manufacturer from the EU should always be taken into account in addition to the cheapest supplier from non-European countries. Storage for several months is also planned for discounted medicines. So far, however, these are only cornerstones. A concrete draft law from the Federal Ministry of Health is still pending.