The Health Ministry will not pay pharmacies this month

This month, Valencian pharmacies will not charge for prescriptions delivered to patients through the public healthcare system or the Valencian Health Agency (AVS). At a meeting with members from the Valencian Community’s three pharmaceutical associations on Friday, June 20th, the Minister of Health, Marciano Gómez, made this statement. The explanation given is a lack of money at the Valencian Government, as well as challenges caused by the outstanding €1.9 billion from the exceptional Regional Money Fund (FLA), which the central government would be required to disburse beginning July 1st if the annual deadlines were met.

The Ministry of Health is scheduled to pay the invoiced amount for May’s drugs on June 30th (it collects monthly), therefore payments will be delayed “by one month.” According to Gómez, the Generalitat is “making a huge treasury management effort to expedite payments” to the regional government’s suppliers, particularly “to a sector like the pharmaceutical sector, which is a priority for healthcare” for Valencians. According to the most recent numbers from April 30th, the Generalitat Valenciana’s commercial debt to suppliers is €1.767 billion. The Ministry of Health’s debt to creditors is €1.544 billion; a year earlier, on the same date, it was €1.887 billion, according to the Generalitat’s own records. The Generalitat Valenciana approved the FLA collection for July, but it has not yet occurred this year.

Problems at pharmacies

Nonpayment will resurrect a situation from 2011 and put several pharmacies on the verge of closure. According to official sources from Valencia’s Most Illustrious Official College of Pharmacists (MICOF), nonpayment “affects the viability of many pharmacies,” particularly in rural areas, which “must guarantee” this “fundamental service” with their own resources.

Professionals complain that they are once again forced to accept the possibility that they will not be able to collect their outstanding bills. “What would happen if healthcare workers weren’t paid for a month?” one member of the association wonders. “The healthcare system would come to a complete stop, yet we continue to tolerate it.”

The regional minister said that if the funds were given sooner, “the aforementioned delay in payments to the pharmaceutical sector could be reduced.” That is, if the government pays the FLA, the Health Ministry will compensate the chemists. What is certain is that the regional council is raising pressure on the executive branch on pharmaceutical billing and is using the opportunity to criticise the “underfunding of the Valencian Community,” which receives 165 million euros less per month than it is entitled to.

Political conflict over the FLA

The payment of the FLA has become a source of political contention between the People’s Party (PP) in Consell (Consell) and the Socialists in the federal administration. President Mazón has sought payment from the Sánchez government on multiple occasions, including at the Conference of Presidents a few weeks ago. And the government has not publicly responded, despite Morant raising the idea at the end of May: “It will probably have to happen,” said the head of the Valencian Socialists, referring to the business community that met with Mazón at the Palau.