The extra cost of importing or replacing a drug that is unavailable in Belgian stocks will be reimbursed from 1 January 2025. The announcement that the additional costs will be reimbursed was made in a statement released by the office of the outgoing Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist) on Monday. The new measure applies to medicines considered essential and that are already reimbursed by the health mutuals.
Previously, patients were charged extra when a medicine that was unavailable in Belgium had to be imported from abroad by the pharmacist or wholesaler or when it had to be replaced by another non-reimbursable medicine. From 1 January, a Royal Decree will allow patients to avoid paying this additional charge for medicines “whose use is urgent and necessary to avoid a serious deterioration in the patient's state of health and for which no other alternative is available”.
The ougoing Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke stresses that “Patients must not have to pay the price for a shortage of stock of medicines”. He added that pharmacies and health mutuals will collaborate to this end. All medicines for which the additional cost to the patient will be reimbursed will be included on a list that National Institute for Sickness and Disability (RIZIV) will make available to pharmacists and health mutuals.
If a drug is on the list, the patient will only have to pay the patient contribution (as they would have done if it were available in Belgium) but will no longer the additional import or substitution costs incurred by the pharmacist.