Effect of pharmaceutical reimbursement policies on pharmaceutical spending in social security system

Effect of Pharmaceutical Reimbursement Policies on Pharmaceutical Spending in Social Security System. Gazi University, Institute of Social Sciences, Hospital Management Program, Graduate Thesis, Ankara 2009. In its broadest meaning, reimbursement is payment of the whole or some part of the price of medical product or health care to the person/patient or to the institution that provided the service by insurance institution. Growth in pharmaceuticals industry, continuous increase in competition in pharmaceuticals market, bottlenecks that the social security institutions face, national and international pharmaceutical policies, health- pharmaceutical expenditures, generic pharmaceutical applications and activities in parallel trade have rendered pricing of the pharmaceuticals and the policies with regard to reimbursement important. In parallel with the increase in health expenditures in Turkey, expenditures on pharmaceuticals have an increasing trend as well. This has leaded, in Turkey with a constraint budget, to take saving measures with a view to putting the pharmaceutical expenditures under control in recent years. Within the framework of social security reform, a range of reimbursement policies have been followed since 2004. Main goals of the mentioned study are to review pharmaceutical reimbursement policies in Turkey, to compare the practices in Turkey with those in other countries in terms of access to pharmaceuticals, cost of pharmaceuticals for individuals and public payers and pharmaceutical policies, to determine the problems and the issues that should be paid attention as well as to analyze the effect of pharmaceutical reimbursement policies in place on pharmaceutical expenditures through examining the trend of pharmaceutical expenditures that has a remarkable share in health expenditures of social security institutions. With the methodology used, the main problematic areas have been determined and solutions have been proposed.Key Words: Reimbursement, Pharmaceutical Reimbursement Policy, Pharmaceutical Spending