Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration
Introduction: On 1 March 2009, a new reimbursement system was introduced by the Ministry of Health of Iceland regarding drugs to treat hyperlipidaemia. The Social Insurance Administration was only authorised to reimburse 10 and 20 mg simvastatin unless patients were eligible to receive a medical car...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/1403494812458991 2023-05-15T16:48:50+02:00 Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn Björnsdóttir, Linda Rós Einarsdóttir, Rannveig Halldórsson, Matthías Andersen, Karl 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494812458991 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1403494812458991 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1403494812458991 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Scandinavian Journal of Public Health volume 40, issue 7, page 663-667 ISSN 1403-4948 1651-1905 Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health General Medicine journal-article 2012 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812458991 2022-04-14T04:53:18Z Introduction: On 1 March 2009, a new reimbursement system was introduced by the Ministry of Health of Iceland regarding drugs to treat hyperlipidaemia. The Social Insurance Administration was only authorised to reimburse 10 and 20 mg simvastatin unless patients were eligible to receive a medical card from the Social Insurance Administration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of this reimbursement regulation on the clinical outcome. Materials and methods: Patients that received hyperlipidaemia treatment and were admitted to the cardiac ward were enrolled. The criteria were that the patients had been admitted 1 year prior to the regulation change and were using other statins than simvastatin. Results: Out of 233 eligible patients 170 (73%) reached the treatment goal before the switch. After the switch, only 126 (54%) reached their goal ( p<0.05). Total cholesterol was found to be increased after the switch by a mean of 0.48 mmol/l (range 3.90−5.53 mmol/l, p<0.001). Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by a mean of 0.48 mmol/l (range 1.62−3.11, p<0.001). The level of triglycerides did not change significantly. Before the introduction of the new regulations, 73% of subjects were well controlled, but after 1 March 2009, this figure dropped to 46% (37% decrease). Conclusions: In order to lower costs for subsidising drugs, a switch to simvastatin from other cholesterol-lowering drugs was implemented (by the Ministry of Health of Iceland). The result was a significant and unwanted increase in cholesterol levels among patients with heart disease. The reason seems to be inaccurate prescriptions due to lack of competence among physicians and pharmacists. The use of “one drug fits all” does not comply here. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 40 7 663 667 |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
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English |
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Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health General Medicine |
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Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health General Medicine Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn Björnsdóttir, Linda Rós Einarsdóttir, Rannveig Halldórsson, Matthías Andersen, Karl Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
topic_facet |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health General Medicine |
description |
Introduction: On 1 March 2009, a new reimbursement system was introduced by the Ministry of Health of Iceland regarding drugs to treat hyperlipidaemia. The Social Insurance Administration was only authorised to reimburse 10 and 20 mg simvastatin unless patients were eligible to receive a medical card from the Social Insurance Administration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of this reimbursement regulation on the clinical outcome. Materials and methods: Patients that received hyperlipidaemia treatment and were admitted to the cardiac ward were enrolled. The criteria were that the patients had been admitted 1 year prior to the regulation change and were using other statins than simvastatin. Results: Out of 233 eligible patients 170 (73%) reached the treatment goal before the switch. After the switch, only 126 (54%) reached their goal ( p<0.05). Total cholesterol was found to be increased after the switch by a mean of 0.48 mmol/l (range 3.90−5.53 mmol/l, p<0.001). Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased by a mean of 0.48 mmol/l (range 1.62−3.11, p<0.001). The level of triglycerides did not change significantly. Before the introduction of the new regulations, 73% of subjects were well controlled, but after 1 March 2009, this figure dropped to 46% (37% decrease). Conclusions: In order to lower costs for subsidising drugs, a switch to simvastatin from other cholesterol-lowering drugs was implemented (by the Ministry of Health of Iceland). The result was a significant and unwanted increase in cholesterol levels among patients with heart disease. The reason seems to be inaccurate prescriptions due to lack of competence among physicians and pharmacists. The use of “one drug fits all” does not comply here. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn Björnsdóttir, Linda Rós Einarsdóttir, Rannveig Halldórsson, Matthías Andersen, Karl |
author_facet |
Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn Björnsdóttir, Linda Rós Einarsdóttir, Rannveig Halldórsson, Matthías Andersen, Karl |
author_sort |
Gizurarson, Sveinbjörn |
title |
Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
title_short |
Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
title_full |
Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
title_fullStr |
Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
title_full_unstemmed |
Clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration |
title_sort |
clinical consequences following regulatory changes in respect to reimbursement of statins cost by the icelandic social insurance administration |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494812458991 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1403494812458991 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1403494812458991 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health volume 40, issue 7, page 663-667 ISSN 1403-4948 1651-1905 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494812458991 |
container_title |
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health |
container_volume |
40 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
663 |
op_container_end_page |
667 |
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1766038925705478144 |