the Netherlands: EMA, and what it actually costs here
Something I keep coming back to: the Netherlands: EMA, and what it actually costs here.
Asked in my own language at a local pharmacy and got a clearer answer in five minutes than a fortnight of forum reading.
On cross-border prescriptions, since the assumption behind half these threads is wrong.
There are EU rules on the recognition of prescriptions issued in another member state, and they are conditional: the prescription has to meet requirements about its form and content, certain categories are excluded, and pharmacies retain discretion in practice.
The result is that "my prescription will be accepted anywhere in the EU" is not a safe assumption, and members here have discovered it at a counter in another country. If it matters for a trip, check before you travel with the pharmacy and with somebody qualified where you are. Nothing on this board is advice about that, and the rules are national in their application whatever the framework says.
How to compare prices across borders without misleading yourself.
Normalise the pack size first. Presentations differ between member states and a headline figure for one pack is not comparable to another. Then separate reimbursed from private prices, which are set by entirely different mechanisms. Then note the dispensing fee structure, which is nationally regulated.
When members here have done all three, the interesting finding has consistently been that variation between pharmacies within a country is often as large as the variation between countries — which makes the cross-border shopping most of these threads are really about far less attractive than it looks.
Ask me anything specific. Anything general I will probably get wrong.
best — the order this archive was captured in
Nothing here is medical or legal advice, and eligibility questions have national answers that a pharmacist where you live can give you in minutes.
Is the prescription from the same country as the pharmacy?
EU-wide advice is almost always wrong somewhere
Right, and a shortage notice in one country tells you very little about the next one along.
Right, and a shortage notice in one country tells you very little about the next one along.
Adding the practical step — read your own country’s published criteria. They exist and they are definitive.
Published reimbursement criteria exist in most member states and are usually available in the national language. They are the authoritative answer to eligibility questions that this board can only guess at.
Published reimbursement criteria exist in most member states and are usually available in the national language.
Disagreeing with this bit: that criterion belongs to one member state and is being quoted as general.
Cosigning on cross-border prescriptions. The rules exist and they are narrower than the summaries suggest.
Small fix — those two prices are for different pack sizes, which accounts for most of the gap.
Kept the prescription and the receipt for a claim, purely because a thread here told me to. Both were requested.
That is an authorisation question and you have answered a reimbursement one. They are decided by different bodies.
That shortage notice was national and does not apply where the question is coming from.
Read the published reimbursement criteria where I live rather than asking. Took twenty minutes and answered everything.
Marketing authorisation is granted centrally for these products; reimbursement, pricing and prescribing criteria are national competences. Those are decided by different bodies with different processes.
say which country or the thread is useless
the language barrier is a real cost and nobody budgets for it
The variation between pharmacies inside my own country was larger than the variation I had been chasing across the border.
Cross-border prescription recognition exists under EU rules but is conditional and narrower than commonly assumed, with requirements about the prescription’s form and content.
Correction: that is the authorisation position, and the question was about reimbursement. Different bodies, different answers.
pack sizes differ, so per-month comparisons need care
The translation cost of dealing with a foreign pharmacy was the thing I had not budgeted for.
Compared prices across two neighbouring countries and found the difference was mostly pack size once I normalised it.
Pharmacy margins and dispensing fees are regulated nationally, which explains price differences that otherwise look arbitrary.
the reimbursement criteria are published in most member states
Reimbursed or private?
the EMA authorises, member states decide who pays
the same product has different names and pack sizes across the union
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