Filenews 30 November 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
Definitively as of January 1, 2025, specialized medicines and treatments are transferred from the Ministry of Health to the GHS and the Health Insurance Organisation has already informed the System's doctors that as of Monday the process of submitting applications for their patients who are already on the list of the Nominative Requests Committee begins.
Initially, according to the relevant announcement of the HIO – and during December – the process will concern patients who already receive specialized medicines and treatments through the Ministry of Health and patients who will have been approved by the Ministry of Health by December 31.
During this time, doctors must register the relevant requests in the GHS software so that their patients can start being served by the HIO. For patients who will be included in the list, after January 1, the HIO, as mentioned in the announcement, will inform doctors in the near future.
As the Organization clarifies, medicines and treatments that are not licensed and priced or do not concern GHS beneficiaries will remain under the responsibility of the Nominal Requests Committee of the Ministry of Health.
Regarding the procedure that will start to apply from Monday, the HIO states that doctors "from 2 December 2024 will start submitting pre-approval requests to the GHS IT system so that treatment can continue by the HIO and prescription through the GHS IT system. Requests for prior authorisation should be submitted as soon as possible in order to be completed by 31 December 2024."
"Only licensed and priced medicines that fall under the responsibilities of the HIO will be in the IT system" and in cases where doctors cannot locate in the GHS IT system the medicines they are looking for for their patient, they must contact the Organization.
Regarding the way these medicines are secured by patients, the HIO states in its relevant announcement that hospital pharmacies "must serve patients approved by the EDA seamlessly in case the relevant approvals have not been given through the IT system by the Organization so that there is no interruption or delay in patients' access to their treatments during the transitional period".
The service "will continue to be done on the basis of the information that pharmacies will have at their disposal from the pharmaceutical services and the Directorate of Purchases and Supplies of the Ministry of Health, with the presentation of handwritten prescriptions." Handwritten prescriptions will be accepted until January 31, 2025.
Hospital pharmacies will be informed through a special electronic file about the status of each treatment/drug, until the completion of the procedure.
In statements to "F", the director of the HIO, Athos Tsinontidis, said that "the Organization, as promised, is proceeding with the process of transferring patients who are now served by the Ministry of Health to the HIO. This process, in order not to cause delays or disruption between patients, will start from Monday, with a completion schedule on the last day of the year, so that we can proceed normally from January 1, 2025, as planned."
Mr. Tsinontidis stressed that "the process and planning that has been drawn up concerns doctors and not patients. There is no need for our patients to take any action and we clarify this so as not to cause unnecessary panic. The doctors have received the necessary instructions and from Monday they will be able to take the necessary actions on behalf of their eligible patients."
The HIO, he concluded, "for new patients, i.e. for those who will start submitting requests after January 1, 2025, it will proceed in the next period to a new update of doctors."
