There is a Risk Patients to be Left Without Medications During the Holidays

There is a risk that patients will be left without medications during the holidays, pharmacists have warned, quoted by bTV.

The reason is that the Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has not paid the nearly BGN 70 million  to pharmacies for November and postponed the payment for next year.

Failure to pay will put at risk many pharmacies working under a contract with the NHIF will not be able to buy medicines, which will lead to patients being unable to obtain them, especially the expensive ones, which are granted by protocol, said Svetoslav Krumov, secretary general of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union (BFU).

Krumov reminded that patients can only get their medication on the territory of their respective regional health insurance fund, which means they will not be able to buy them from another area in the country.

The Pharmaceutical Union has announced that this is a systemic problem and is therefore terminating talks with the NHIF on the new framework contract for 2018.