Payment dispute between government, pharmacies resolved in Turkey

ANKARA

DHA photo

A payment dispute between the Turkish government and the country’s pharmacies has been resolved after several weeks of talks and long-simmering tension. 

Labor and Social Security Minister Süleyman Soylu said late March 31 the Social Security Institution (SGK) and the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association (TEB) have agreed over a medicine acquisition protocol, which was authorized by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. 

Davutoğlu accepted the TEB management at the Çankaya Palace, according to sources from the Prime Ministry.

In the meeting, which was also attended by Soylu, the public sector and the TEB agreed on a plan after payments and discount amounts were revised. 

More details of the accord are expected to be announced by Soylu and the TEB management very soon. A revised protocol is expected to be clinched soon, according to officials. 

The TEB demanded making SGK discounts over the SGK revenues, not the total revenues. 

The pharmacies’ other demands included increasing the scale of sales, lowering discount ratios, increasing the service fee per prescription, defining the prescription service fee without value added tax, removing the collection of examination fees via pharmacies, the payment of service fee per prescription in mobile prescriptions, increasing service fees for sales outside work hours and other economic benefits. 

The TEB said some 13,000 pharmacies in the country are on the brink of bankruptcy.