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Information Services and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) have developed a new functionality of the National Health Information System (NHIS), which reduces the incorrect e-prescribing as a follow-up to comments by the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union (BPhU). The new function is being enforced within the process of downloading the prescription, allowing the pharmacy software to receive a warning message concerning the existence of incorrectly entered attributes. Further it subsequently may not be paid by the NHIF. Similar warning message will be received by the doctor who has prescribed the medication through the online system for prescribing and dispensing medicinal products. This is vitally important for the employees in the pharmacy sector and strengthens the preliminary control over the prescribing of medicines reimbursed for by the NHIF.
It should be noted that the system only warns pharmacies about the error in е-prescribing and it is up to the pharmacist whether he will fulfill the prescribed medication. In case of refusal to fulfill the e-prescription, the pharmacist must state the reason for denial, using a qualified electronic signature (QES). When an electronic prescription is refused, the reason for denial is visualized for the NHIF and the doctor who prescribed the medication so the wrong prescription can be canceled and a new one may be issued.
The introduced functionality related to error reduction is coordinated with the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union, the National Health Insurance Fund and the Ministry of Health and it is in accordance with the texts in the National Framework Agreement.
The total number of electronic prescriptions issued through the NHIS accounted for almost 14 million. The centralized online system for prescribing and dispensing of medicinal products was built by Information Services in record time and introduced to operation in early February 2021. Only 912 e-prescriptions were canceled with an average of some 40,000 issued daily. The e-prescription module is used effectively by over 2,700 pharmacies across the country and some 3,700 pharmacists. The total number of doctors who prescribe electronically is almost 5,000.
There is also a serious interest in “E-Examination” module of NHIS, which allows general practitioners and specialists in outpatient care to record electronic examinations and issue outpatient card in electronic format. Only within one month, the system has recorded almost 20,000 registered e-examinations.