First Reading: Private Hospitals to Conduct Public Tenders for Medicines

Private hospitals are also to conduct public procurement tenders when purchasing medicines. This was decided at a first reading today by Parliament during the consideration of amendments to the Public Procurement Act. The proposal was submitted by the parliamentary group of We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), as reported by BTA.

Initially, the bill was rejected with 87 votes in favor, three against, and 50 abstentions.

Following a re-voting procedure motivated by Member of Parliament Bozhidar Bozhanov, the bill was passed with 98 votes in favor, six against, and 81 abstentions. The amendment was supported by deputies from “Vazrazhdane,” “BSP – United Left,” “Democracy, Rights and Freedoms” – DPS, “Morality, Unity, Honor” (MECH), and “Velichie.” Deputies from GERB-SDS and “There Is Such a People” voted with abstentions.

The bill was presented by its sponsor, Nadezhda Yordanova, who stated that the goal is to rectify an erroneous decision in the Public Procurement Act—specifically, the exclusion of medicines purchased by private hospitals but paid for with funds from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) from the scope of the Public Procurement Act, thereby exempting their purchase from competitive procedures. Yordanova noted that journalistic investigations have established that for the same medicinal product, a private hospital may pay a price 26 times higher than that paid for the same product in a state or municipal hospital where a procurement procedure was conducted under the Public Procurement Act. This means that NHIF funds are being drained and diverted from their intended purpose, she added. The estimate for this improper expenditure exceeds 100 million BGN annually, Yordanova pointed out.

One hundred and sixteen hospitals are private out of a total of 341 hospitals, or 34% of all hospitals in the country, added Nadezhda Yordanova, who also stated that current European legislation on public procurement does not allow such an exception, BTA concluded.