Bulgaria can be sued because of the lack of public procurement in private hospitals

European Commission warned that Bulgaria could be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU under several criminal procedures, BTA reported. One of them refers to that private hospitals in our country are excluded from the requirement to conduct public procurementand, although they use a public resource from the NHIF.

According to the information from the commission, the EC undertakes proceedings against Bulgaria, Romania and Spain for non-compliance with EU public procurement legislation. “The rules in this area and for concession contracts were to be introduced into national laws by 18 April 2016., so that countries follow impartial and transparent procedures“, indicated by the commission. The EC specifies that these rules aim at opening up the market for real competition and providing the best value to society. For Bulgaria, the procedure is related to the exclusion of private hospitals from the rules for public procurement, even when they are partially financed from the budget. The three countries have two months to respond and remedy the deficiencies, otherwise our country and Spain may be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU.

We recall that last year the parliament finally rejected the proposed requirement for changes to the Public Procurement Act that private hospitals must also conduct public procurement, if more than 50% of their income are from the state and/or municipal budget and/or from the budget of the National Health Insurance Fund. It was proposed in 2022 by the government and passed at first reading, but it was finally rejected during the consideration of the texts in the plenary hall. All parliamentary groups were against it, except that of the PP-DB.

So do private hospitals will continue not to conduct public procurement for medicines, although they use a public resource from the NHIF. Currently, the requirement to conduct public procurement applies only to state and municipal medical institutions. The topic entered in the spotlight in early 2020., when the then manager of the National Health Insurance Fund, Dr. Decho Dechev, announced that the Health Insurance Fund was paying for one drug for a private hospital at 7 times the price, than it pays for the same medicine to a state and municipal hospital, and determined the legal possibility for this for a lobbyist. An audit by the Treasury found that of 29 hospitals that used the drug, the first 11 paid at higher prices are private, which do not conduct public procurement.