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Incentives and pharmaceutical reimbursement reforms in Spain
1Research Centre for Health and Economics (CRES), Department of Economics and Business, Pompeu Fabra University, C. Trias Fargas 25-27, 34-08005 Barcelona, Spain. jaume.puig@upf.edu
Health Policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
|January 15, 2004
Summary
Spanish pharmaceutical reimbursement reforms between 1996-2002 aimed to contain costs. Policies included excluded drug lists, reference pricing, altered pharmacy payment systems, and industry agreements, impacting market behavior.
Area of Science:
- Health Economics
- Pharmaceutical Policy
Background:
- The Spanish healthcare system introduced significant pharmaceutical reimbursement reforms between 1996 and 2002.
- These reforms were implemented under the conservative Popular Party Government.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of recent pharmaceutical reimbursement reforms on cost containment in Spain.
- To assess the effects of these policies on the behavior of agents within the pharmaceutical market.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of four key reimbursement policies introduced post-1996:
- 1. Supplementary negative list of excluded pharmaceutical products (1998).
- 2. Reference pricing (RP) system (introduced December 2000).
- 3. Pharmacy payment system reform (variable margins based on price, generic status, sales volume).
- 4. Government-industry agreements focused on cost containment.
Main Results:
- The paper assesses the overall impact of these integrated and unintegrated pharmaceutical reimbursement policies.
- An evaluation of the behavioral changes among pharmaceutical market agents is presented.
Conclusions:
- The study provides an overall assessment of the effectiveness of pharmaceutical reimbursement reforms in Spain.
- The findings offer insights into the consequences of these policies on market dynamics and cost containment efforts.
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