The Decree establishes new criteria for the dispensing of medicines by the National Health System. 200 million euros have been allocated: 50 for the period 1 September to 31 December 2021, 150 million for 2022
Pharmacy News – August 27, 2021
It was signed last August 12th by the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza and the Minister of Economy and Finance Daniele Franco, the Decree establishing the experimental criteria of new remuneration in favor of pharmacies for the dispensing of the drug by the National Health Service.
They have been earmarked 200 million, of which 50 for the period 1 September 2021-31 December 2021 and 150 for 2022. An additional remuneration of 0.08 cents has been set on each package of medicines affiliated with the NHS and 0.12 cents for equivalent medicines.
The president of Federfarma Marco Cossolo he thanked Minister Speranza and the Government «for having believed in the role that pharmacies have shown they can play in such a complex moment for the country. Working together with public institutions, especially in this phase of serious emergency, can certainly contribute to resolving the health crisis and, at the same time, can help us define that new pharmacy modeleffective, efficient, ready to respond to the new health needs of citizens".
Towards a new pharmacy and remuneration model
“The signing of the decree – he declared Roberto Tobia, national secretary of Federfarma – is a strategic step towards the remuneration system which will progressively enhance the professional role of the pharmacist in the pharmacy, on the basis of the services rendered to citizens and only partially linked to the price of the drug. The service rendered by pharmacies to the community during this period of health emergency has confirmed their role as first proximity health facility».
The capillarity of the pharmacy network in our country has guaranteed access to health services to all citizens, in such a difficult situation, even in the most internal and isolated areas of the country. Indeed, it must be remembered that the rural pharmacies, located in small municipalities and in the most remote areas of the peninsula, have played a crucial role during the health emergency, representing in the majority of cases the only health facility available to the population.
"In recent years, as a result of a decrease in the agreed expenditure, many rural pharmacies have however encountered problems of an economic nature," Tobia reiterated. On the basis of the new decree and the new pharmacy model, capable of offering the citizen a varied series of additional services, it is desirable to imagine it possible to go towards a remuneration model no longer based only on the sale of the drug but also on services rendered to citizens, thus emphasizing the proximity and timeliness of the pharmacy as an integrated territorial unit of the National Health Service.
The new remuneration will also be the theme at the center of the conference of the Institutional Sector which Fedefarma will submit to Cosmofarma ReAction. The appointment with the conference, entitled "From additional quotas to structural reform: the new remuneration as a tool to enhance the professional role of the pharmacy in the area". The appointment is for Friday 10 September, at 4.15pm, in the Meeting Room in Pharmacy – Hall 30.
Related news: P. 17 CSR Act Rep. No. 135
Decree-law 22 March 2021, n. 41
The 5 planned interventions
A series of interventions are envisaged in the draft decree. Specifically, first one additional fee of 0.08 Euros to be applied to all pharmacies for medicines reimbursed by the national health system. This solution intends to reward the professional act, detaching the remuneration from the price of the drug.
The draft decree also provides for a reward fee of 12 cents per packfor all pharmacies to be applied to the purchase of generic and originator drugs with a price equal to the reference price, to encourage pharmacists to dispense the product with the lowest price.
Therefore, the document continues, the following is envisaged:
- a additional fee of 12 cents "typological", only for those pharmacies that benefit from the 60% reduction of the NHS multi-discount;
- a additional fee of 14 cents per package of medicinal product reimbursed by the national health system for subsidized rural pharmacies which benefit from the flat-rate discount of 1.5%;
- a additional fee of 25 cents intended exclusively for rural and urban pharmacies exempt from the NHS discount as they have a turnover of less than 150 thousand euros.
In order to understand what the impact of the trial will be, we started from the categorization of the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa on the basis of NHS turnover and the type of discount. Based on what emerges, 2,806 pharmacies belong to the category with a reduced discount of 60%, while 3,450 have a flat-rate discount of 1.5%; exempt 892.
