Side effects
The agreement must ensure that the 1.2 million lung patients do not have to switch unnecessarily from inhaled medication. That still happens now and it is not uncommon for them to suffer from nasty side effects.
“It may be that people receive less medicine. And therefore more serious or more complaints from their asthma or COPD,” says Rutgers.
Breakthrough
The most important non-medical reason for switching – the insurer no longer reimburses the drug – should be a thing of the past with this agreement. Health insurers will soon be allowed to transfer a lung patient to another drug only once every four years on the basis of their preferential policy. But if the doctor indicates that there may not be a change at all due to medical necessity, then it should not happen.
If changes do have to take place, for example in the event of a shortage of a medicine, patients must be properly supervised by pharmacists and general practitioners.
“And I think that point is a real breakthrough,” says Michael Rutgers, director of the Long Fund. “It still regularly happens that people receive a bag of medication without proper instructions. Things can go really wrong because people use their medication incorrectly after a medication change. Agreements have now also been made about this.”
Rutgers acknowledges that this agreement does not solve the drug shortages. “You can’t just arrange that for lung medication, you have to solve that for medicines in general.”
2023-09-05 16:04:24
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