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Country profiles of health system responses to the crisis | Greece
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Changes to health service planning, purchasing and delivery
Prices of medical goods
• Introduction of an electronic procurement method (2009).
• A price observatory (Observer net) was created to record minimum prices
of medical supplies and impose the lowest price in all hospitals (2009).
• Generic prices capped at 60% of the original (2011).
• Reduction of the reimbursable price of drugs by up to 70% (2012).
• Introduction of reference pricing for drugs on the positive list (2012).
• VAT on pharmaceuticals reduced from 11% to 6.5% (2011).
• Responsibility for drug pricing transferred from the General Secretariat
of Commerce to the National Drug Organization and all other aspects of
pharmaceutical policy to the Ministry of Health (2012).
• Introduction of a new rule specifying that 50% of medicines used in
public hospitals should be generics (2011).
• Introduction of a new e-prescription system (2010).
• Development of new prescribing guidelines (2012).
Salaries and motivation of health sector workers
• Health sector workers' salaries cut by 20% (2010).
• Almost all health sector staff subsidies and productivity bonuses removed
(2011).
• Non-renewal of contracts for temporary staff employed on fixed-term
contracts and limited recruitment to replace retirees.
Payment to providers
• Implementation of a reduction of 15–20% in pharmacists' profit.
Measures were also introduced to liberalize the pharmacy market: more
than one pharmacist can work at the same pharmacy; pharmacies can
be established in closer proximity to each other; hours of business were
extended; and a decrease in the population threshold for setting up a
pharmacy was implemented (2011).
• A hard budget ceiling was set for pharmaceutical expenditure at
€2.88 billion, with a clawback from pharmaceutical companies
implemented if expenditure exceeds this ceiling (2012).
• Introduction of a new payment system for hospitals based on DRGs
(2013).