Dangers of including innovative medicines in outpatient flat rates

The introduction of outpatient flat-rate payments approved today by the Swiss Federal Council poses significant risks for patients and for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Including medication costs in flat-rate payments creates a dangerous perverse incentive to treat patients with the cheapest rather than the most suitable medications, according to a website posting by Interpharma.

Furthermore, it makes it much more difficult for new, innovative medications to be covered by health insurance and thus available to patients. The already fragile supply of innovative medications in Switzerland will thus deteriorate further – to the detriment of patients. In times of growing uncertainty and increasing global competition between locations, this is another bad signal from the federal government in Bern.

Interpharma, the association of the Swiss research-based pharmaceutical industry, fundamentally supports the modernization of outpatient tariff structures and the statutory goal of "outpatient before inpatient." It also advocates the introduction of outpatient flat rates – but with the clear condition that pharmaceuticals continue to be reimbursed separately.