The new Cabinet also plans to reduce the periods of hospitalization, unfreeze hiring in the sector, until April, for all professional categories, in response to the acute need for personnel, and to set up independent specialized units, under the coordination of the Health Ministry, meant to evaluate new medical technologies and products.
The new Cabinet is also set to regulate a special discount system for several medical drugs, which targets those therapeutic indications that are not included in producer’s license to sell medical drugs, and the situations in which there is no “clear scientific evidence” regarding a positive risk/benefit ratio, even though the producer obtained the license to sell a respective drug.
In late 2009, the then-Cabinet introduced the “clawback” system in the healthcare sector, compelling medical drug producers selling medicines on the Romanian market to contribute 5% up to 11% of proceeds from drug sales to the financing of the public healthcare system.
Companies in the healthcare sector criticized the decision at that time, arguing it discriminates against economic operators and the government admitted the system was a failure since the state collected only 5% of the targeted amount.