Health Reform Pharmacies will be cashed

Healthcare reform: pharmacies will be cashed
The criticism of the health reform comes from all directions. For example, the Federal Association of German Pharmacist Associations (ABDA) sees disproportionate burdens on pharmacies in the Pharmaceutical Market Restructuring Act (AMNOG) and makes this one of the central topics at the upcoming German Pharmacists' Day in Munich. However, the boundaries between legitimate criticism and pure lobbying are sometimes quite vague.

ABDA president sees overexploitation at pharmacies
The ABDA President Heinz-Günter Wolff reminded that „the conversion of the wholesale fee (...) not necessary, but a massive mistake“ be. „Here we are cashed“ and „That is unfair and disproportionate. That's robbery“, Wolff complained about the planned changes. In particular, the conversion of the wholesale remuneration based on the AMNOG is a thorn in the side of the pharmacists. This means a charge of more than 500 million euros per year for pharmacies, which is significantly more than Federal Health Minister Philipp Rösler (FDP) have announced, Wolff stressed. „The AMNOG hangs over the pharmacists like a sword of Damocles. It threatens to turn the entire drug supply on its head“, added the ABDA President in a recent press release.

Federal Ministry of Health expected unclean
A major accusation in the direction of the Federal Ministry of Health is that unclean was expected. „Legislators urgently need to recalculate. Otherwise the burdens will be increased immeasurably“, instead of the planned € 175 million, € 630 million in savings would be generated at the expense of pharmacies, said Wolff. As a result, according to his calculations, a minus of 23,000 euros per pharmacy would be incurred annually. This would be the end of nationwide coverage close to home in Germany, emphasized the ABDA President.

Nationwide coverage close to home desired
Also Karl-Heinz Resch, ABDA managing director economics and social admonished that the planned reform endangers the achievements of the pharmacy. However, a cut in benefits is not acceptable to consumers, according to a recent Forsa survey of 1,000 citizens, Resch said. According to this, nine out of ten respondents rated emergency services and messenger services as particularly important, and 87 percent did not want to give up nationwide care in any case. Equally important to the respondents was patient information - 84 percent rated these as particularly important - and protection against counterfeiting (82 percent). Thus, the government should already say at which point the pharmacies should save benefits to catch the looming deficit, said Heinz-Günter Wolff. The fact that this is not the salary of the pharmacist is to be found from the comments of Wolff, according to which the so-called functional discounts were taken into account in the conversion of the pharmacy fee long ago and if the wholesale fee had already been converted, the pharmacist fees were set accordingly higher would. For example, the ABDA President urges the governing parties to provide pharmacies with a reliable and fair framework so that they can maintain their comprehensive services in the supply of medicines. The proposals for the further development of health care, which were presented by the ABDA and the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung, should finally be taken into account, Wolff demanded - and then suddenly the lobbying work and not the patient's welfare seemed to come first in the short term again. (fp, 06.10.2010)