News
30 May 2008
European Pharmacists go to Utrecht
The most recent EPF Seminar took place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on 29 and 30 May. The two-day event included seminars, presentations and Q&A sessions. Representatives of Alliance Healthcare, Kring, the Dutch health ministry as well as the health insurance industry gave presentations relating challenges and opportunities of the changing Dutch healthcare market.
The first day began with a welcome address from Elvire Kuyck, President of EPF. Arvid Manneke, Managing Director of Alliance Healthcare Nederland, then presented an overview of the Dutch market. He discussed several market changes aimed at reducing healthcare costs, including preferential agreements by which insurers agree to offer reimbursement only for the least expensive drug in a given category. The country's four largest private insurers have recently announced that they plan to expand preferential agreements from 3 to 25 drugs. This decision could cause a drop in generic prices of almost 90% and considerably reduce pharmacists' profit margins as a result.
Arvid commented that Alliance Healthcare Nederland believes that this preferential system is potentially harmful to the logistics chain. He added that the company feels generic prices should decrease through savings made by all market players.
Hugo Hurts, Managing Director of the Pharmaceutical Affairs and Medical Technology Directorate (GMT) of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, also mentioned the preferential agreements in his 'Overview of primary and pharmaceutical care in Holland' presentation. After outlining the Government's objectives – universal access to healthcare, quality pharmaceutical care and affordable pharmaceutical care – he placed the agreements in the context of accepting more voluntary price reduction measures as the Government moves toward deregulation of the healthcare industry.
Hugo said that as a result of this shift, some tensions arose a few years ago in the relationship between pharmacists and insurers. He added that although the overall effects of preferential agreements were unknown, the difference between reimbursements to pharmacists and market prices has resulted in artificially high profits for pharmacists. Action to reduce that 'bonus' is 'indispensable for recreating stable, healthy market conditions,' he said.
Several representatives of the health insurance industry were also in attendance. Jan Kroes, Healthcare Division Manager of Zorg & Zekerheid, presented on the insurance sector's view of pharmaceutical assistance in The Netherlands. He said it was necessary to act on overly-high rebates, and that insurance companies are being blamed unfairly.
Peter De Jong, Managing Director of Kring Pharmacy, expressed the view in his presentation that the Kring network helps pharmacists keep up with market changes and maintain high standards. During his presentation, Kring Pharmacy: what are the benefits for the independent pharmacy?', he told the Forum that the Kring network has a very high growth rate in the country, and that Kring pharmacies have a much higher than average customer satisfaction rate.
Each of the seminar's presentations was followed by a Q&A session, and Peter De Jong's presentation was followed by a debate on virtual pharmacy chains.
The second day included an update on Group news from Ornella Barra. EPF member Mike Smith presented a summary of the Lord Darzi review and the UK Pharmacy white paper. EPF member Martin Favié then updated the group on insurance papers. This was followed by a series of updates from EPF member countries, and the day closed with an open debate on items to discuss at the next European Pharmacists Forum.
