In December 2025, the National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) approved the inclusion of three new items in the list of medicines reimbursed at the expense of mandatory health insurance funds. The new drugs are available to patients from January 1, 2026 and are intended for the treatment of diabetes, hypertension and conditions requiring anticoagulant therapy.
In addition, the Ministry of Health amended its regulatory framework, which changed the rules for the issuance and validity of prescriptions for reimbursable medicines used in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases.
Thus, the validity period of prescriptions with medicines prescribed for the treatment of acute diseases has been increased from 10 to 15 days. This is necessary for patients who for objective reasons cannot go to a pharmacy immediately after receiving a prescription. The new terms will provide more flexible access to treatment and reduce the cases of repeated visits to the doctor for a prescription.
In addition, the provision that limited the validity of a prescription to a maximum of three visits to a pharmacy has been repealed. In practice, this often resulted in the prescription being blocked in the e-prescription system in case of unavailability of medicines, forcing the patient to request a new prescription. Removing this restriction, while maintaining the validity of the prescription (15 days for acute conditions and 60 days for chronic conditions), would allow patients to gradually receive all prescribed medicines depending on their availability and without interruptions in treatment.
The restriction that reimbursed drugs could only be prescribed for one diagnosis has also been lifted. Physicians can now include a patient’s entire treatment in a single prescription, including drugs and medical devices.
According to the updated Order of the Ministry of Health on approval of the lists of drugs and medical devices reimbursed from the mandatory health insurance funds, tests and lancets for measuring blood glucose levels will be prescribed for a period of up to 6 months, instead of 3 months, as until now. This will allow physicians to write prescriptions in larger and more favorably priced packages and reduce the frequency of visits to them and to the pharmacy.
