They owe 12 million to pharmacies, citizens are paying for the Fund's mistakes

The debt of the Health Insurance Fund to private pharmacies for dispensing prescription drugs will most likely amount to around 12 million euros by the end of this year, which is why citizens also suffer because therapy is less available to them.

This is claimed by unofficial sources, while the management of this institution, headed by Dragoslav Šćekić, does not answer the questions of "Vijesti". The FZO allegedly does not even have enough funds to pay the December salaries to employees in the health system, which is why they sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance about twenty days ago to secure the missing ten million euros.

The FZO did not answer how much the institution's total debt is to private pharmacies, whether the obligations have been settled and, if not, when they will. In the past few days, several patients have contacted "Vijesti", claiming that in some private institutions they cannot get prescription therapy, but they can buy it, which is why they now mostly go to state pharmacies for medicines.

One of them is Milomir Kosorić, who could not get the therapy prescribed for him in one of the private pharmacies, where he has been picking up medicines for years, but he got them at the state one, in another part of the city.

"When I asked if I could buy them, I received an affirmative answer from the pharmacist of a private pharmacy, with an indication that it was about problems with the Health Fund", he said.

Due to a failure in the work of the FZO, since September, private pharmacies have not received a single cent for dispensing prescription drugs, and the last payment, allegedly, was for June invoices.

The interlocutors of "Vijesti" claim that the reason for the delay in the payment of money is that all the funds intended for private individuals were already spent in August, according to the Decision on the distribution of funds for this year, while the management did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" regarding this case even in November .

According to the contracts that FZO signed with private individuals at the end of September, and which "Vijesti" had access to, the institution undertook to pay invoices within 60 days from the date of invoicing. The agreement stipulates that invoices should be submitted by the 10th of the month for drugs that were issued on prescription in pharmacies during the previous month. The contracts were signed for a period of two years and are valid until September 30, 2023.

At the end of September, FZO concluded new contracts with private pharmacies where prescription drugs are dispensed. As of October 1, it is possible to pick up a prescription medicine, apart from 55 state pharmacies, at 79 private pharmacies, while previously 189 had a contract with the Health Insurance Fund. The condition, among other things, was that a private pharmacy company in Podgorica could designate two pharmacies , and one in each of the other cities where you can pick up the medicine on prescription.

"Vijesti" interlocutors claim that the new contracts with private pharmacies are illegal, because they were signed after the date set by the Law on Compulsory Health Insurance.

In Article 82 of the Law, it is written that the FZO can conclude contracts with other institutions for services that cannot be provided in health institutions from the network, after conducting a public call. According to Article 85 of the same Law, the director of the FZO signs contracts with service providers no later than March 31 of the current year.

Back in July, the government adopted the Decision on a new network of health institutions, which includes only those founded by the state. At that time, it was announced that the FZO, for services that cannot be provided within the prescribed period and in a satisfactory manner in public health, will enter into contracts with private individuals after a public call "to be announced as soon as possible".

Minister of Health Jelena Borovinić Bojović said that the goal of the Government, when the new network with only public institutions was adopted, was to make many more of them available to citizens, "instead of the few private ones that have been available so far."

"Instead of just a few, they will be able to choose from, as we expect, dozens of private institutions, when the public health system is not able to react within the prescribed period," she said.

In September, the FZO announced a public call for private health institutions in which citizens who have been waiting for certain services in the public system for more than 30 days will be treated.

The public invitation ended on October 5, and for months this institution has not answered how many offers have arrived and when the contract is expected to be signed.