Slovak psychiatrists forced to return money to funds because of prescription errors

2010-02-22

A number of Slovak obligatory health insurance funds have asked psychiatric outpatient clinics to return drug reimbursement money because of prescription errors discovered during recent inspections, according to the TASR news agency. The inspections revealed that some psychiatrists were prescribing innovative antipsychotic medicines and violating the indication limitations, the conditions under which a given drug is authorised for use and reimbursed in Slovakia.
The Slovak Medical Union of Specialists (SLUS) claims that one psychiatric outpatient clinic has been asked to return €43,152 to the insurance companies and that other clinics will have to return €16,000 or more. The SLUS believes that the problem was caused by representatives of pharmaceutical companies, who offered free samples of innovative medicines to hospitals without informing doctors about the indication limitations. After the patient has left the hospital, his prescriptions are taken over by the primary care clinic.
The SLUS claims that the pharmaceutical companies use this ruse to avoid the financial costs of widening the drug’s authorisation. The Health Ministry intends to publish a comprehensive guide to the indication and prescription limitations for various drugs and their categorisation within the reimbursement system which will be updated on a quarterly basis.