The new rules will take effect on October 1, the Health Ministry said in a press release.
The ordinance says authorized drug distributors or their legal representatives will pay a quarterly contribution computed as a percentage of the consumption of drugs covered by national social health insurance Fund and the Health Ministry’s budget.
The quarterly contribution will also be computed and applied to sales exceeding the quarterly average of amounts earmarked for drugs included in the national healthcare programs, as well as drugs used in outpatient treatment.
The tax shall be charged depending to the market share of each distributor. The National Health Insurance House will inform every distributor of the percentage owed to the budget, according to a certain formula.
Example: the state earmarks RON100 million for drug consumption in one quarter, but the real consumption in that quarter is RON150 million. The percentage owed by a company to the state budget will be 33% of its sales.
“The mechanism we propose has regulatory effect, it prevents overshooting the budget. For instance, in the last year, in oncology, drug consumption has increased 20%, while morbidity has gone up by 8%. The new measures will not affect the patient, who will not pay more for medicine,” said Minister Ladislau Ritli, cited in the press release.
The funds collected from these contributions will be income for the budget of the national social health insurance Fund and will be used to provide drugs through the national healthcare programs and finance medical services.
Failure to pay the contribution in due time will lead to interest and penalties, going as far as removing the debtor company’s products from the lists of discounted and free drugs.