Japan's unsettled drug payments improve

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare recently reported to the Committee on the Improvement of Prescription Drug Distribution that unsettled payments between medical facilities, including dispensing pharmacies and drug wholesalers, have been improved following efforts by stakeholders last fall to achieve this.

In fall 2007, the Committee issued "an emergency proposal to improve prescription drug distribution" based on "the points to consider" as far as what drug manufacturers, wholesalers and medical facilities should actually implement to improve the current problems with distribution, including unsettled payments, provisional shipments of drugs, rebates and lump-sum bulk buying (Marketletter November 5, 2007).

According to the Ministry's survey, 57.2% of payments in total medical facilities were settled in October 2006 but, when the previous National Health Insurance drug price revision was implemented, this increased to 70.9% in September 2008. By facility, hospitals with over 200 beds, other hospitals and clinics rose from 30.6%, 60.7% and 84.8% to 46.7%, 66.8% and 88.6%, respectively. Over this timeframe, chain pharmacies with over 20 outlets rose from 14.4% to 71.7%, confirming the efforts to improve the situation by the chain pharmacy-related groups. Other pharmacies increased from 62.2% to 77.2%.