The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the Bulgarian Medical Association agreed on the main parameters of the 2011 National Framework Agreement, the NHIF said on Thursday.

At a meeting which ended late on Wednesday evening, the sides reached concord on all provisions. The meeting was attended by Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov and his deputies Mihail Zortev, Gergana Pavlova and Dessislava Dimitrova.

A few conditions in the Framework Agreement remain to be specified at the expert level before the document is signed conclusively. The NHIF is confident that it will be signed by the year's end and will enter into force on January 1.

More patients with chronic disease will have their drugs reimbursed partially or fully. From 2011, chronically ill patients will be able to buy their drugs from pharmacies all over the country, contracted by the National Health Insurance Fund.

The procedure for the issue and reporting of referrals by GPs and specialists will be eased. GPs will be able to opt out of outside office hours GP service.

General practitioners will not work at surgeries for out of hours care that should go into operation from January 1, 2011 under an ordinance of the Health Ministry, said Lyubomir Kirov, Chair of the National Association of General Practitioners, at a BTA-hosted news conference on Thursday.

GPs refuse to set up co-ops to provide out of hours service in the evening and at weekends, said Kirov, adding that the Association is against the new ordinance because it does not lay clear rules for the organization and funding of the out of hours care.

According to Kirov, the nine million leva allocated for out of hours surgeries are "a smoke screen" and are not enough to cover the real costs of labour and medical supplies.

Instead, the Association is proposing the establishment of call centres that will be manned by GPs.

The Bulgarian Association of Owners of Pharmacies has made a commitment to

supply year-round necessary drugs for patients across the country. "We are not going to allow a single person to be left without medication," Association Chairman Vesselin Mareshki told a BTA-hosted news conference on Thursday.

In his words, drugs will be supplied all year round, stocking at first some 200-250 pharmacies across the country. Mareshki vowed to honour the agreement with the National Health Insurance Fund and to supply all drugs despite the no profit margin.

The Association's commitment has been laid out in an agreement with patients' organizations.

Source: BTA