Dispute over proposal to redistribute pharmacy fees

Dispute over proposal to redistribute pharmacy fees

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/picture alliance, Westend61, Zeljko Dangubic

Berlin – The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds has advocated a redistribution of pharmacy fees from busy pharmacies in cities in favor of pharmacies in sparsely populated rural areas. The pharmacists are not very enthusiastic about it.

From the perspective of the board member of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Stefanie Stoff-Ahnis, the proposal is intended to help secure the supply of people in rural regions, as she does Editorial network Germany said.

“We don’t need eleven pharmacies within walking distance of Munich’s Marienplatz. “But we have to ensure that patients can also find a pharmacy nearby in the Uckermark, East Frisia or the Hunsrück,” said Stoff-Ahnis.

In order to achieve this goal, pharmacies with high sales should in future receive less money per pack dispensed, while pharmacies in rural regions with correspondingly lower sales should receive a “supply bonus”.

She argued that pharmacies that could provide care in large rural areas deserved economic preference over pharmacies in busy urban centers.

So far, pharmacies have received a fixed base amount of 8.50 euros for each medication that they provide to people with statutory health insurance. In addition, there is a percentage surcharge of three percent of the drug price. According to the report, the plans of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to strengthen rural pharmacies do not go far enough for the health insurance companies.

For the chairman of the German Pharmacists Association (DAV), Hans-Peter Hubmann, the proposal shows “how little the health insurance companies care about providing good care for their own insured people”. He emphasized that it was wrong that city pharmacies were doing better than rural pharmacies.

In Berlin-Lichtenberg there is a pharmacy density of around 14 pharmacies that have to serve 100,000 people. For comparison: On a national average, around 21 pharmacies serve 100,000 citizens – compared to 32 in the EU.

“The number of pharmacies in Germany’s major cities has been falling for years – in some cases even faster than the national average. For the people in the neighborhoods, this means that a part of the supply close to home is lost every time and therefore additional journeys have to be made,” emphasized Hubmann. © afp/aerzteblatt.de

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