Romania’s 2010 Healthcare Frame Contract Leaves Out Article On Family Pharmacies

„This article was discarded. Things will remain unchanged, thus, there will be no tight grip on medicine prescriptions for chronic diseases. Scrapping national auctions in the oncology sector has triggered a 128% increase in costs, and an increase of 25% in costs in the diabetes sector,” Lucian Duta, head of the National Health Insurance House CNAS, said Wednesday.

Duta also said family pharmacies will be destined exclusively for sufferers of chronic illnesses who receive treatment through national healthcare programs, stressing the pharmacist registers the patient in the pharmacy database and the health insurance house has control over medicine consumption.

„At present, the health insurance house has no control whatsoever on consumption and prescriptions, as there are no national registers on chronic illnesses,” Duta said.

Duta added that a family pharmacy is supposed to ensure the proper medication included in the contract, on a monthly basis, to the patient registered in its database.

Duta underscored that he took the measure to organize family pharmacies in order to both ensure continuity for the treatment of chronically ill patients and do away with frauds in the system.

The Romanian Pharmacists’ College criticized CNAS’s intention to introduce this article, stressing it will encourage „businesses between doctors and certain pharmacies.”

The new frame contract on healthcare services for 2010 must come into effect on April 1.