Starting next year, artificial tears health insurance benefits메이저놀이터 will not apply to patients with dry eye syndrome due to LASIK surgery. In this case, the price of artificial tears will be about 10 times more expensive than it is now.
At the 9th Pharmaceutical Reimbursement Evaluation Committee, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service announced that it would apply reimbursement benefits only to some products of sodium hyaluronate eye drops, a raw material for artificial tears, and limit the amount of prescriptions.
As a result of deliberation, the Pharmaceutical Review Committee determined that sodium hyaluronate eye drops were appropriate for reimbursement in cases of endogenous diseases such as Sjögren’s syndrome, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and dry eye syndrome. However, after LASIK or LASEK surgery, it was considered to have low clinical usefulness for extrinsic diseases caused by drugs, trauma, or wearing contact lenses.
Until now, if you were prescribed eye drops for extrinsic reasons, you could purchase a box of 60 pieces for about 4,000 won. This is the amount with health insurance benefits applied and is approximately 10% of the actual price. Accordingly, if eye drops are excluded from health insurance coverage, the price is expected to become 10 times more expensive, reaching 40,000 won.
According to Newsis, an HIRA official said, “The selective reimbursement system began in 2007, and this drug was introduced without any evaluation in 1997, so we examined its clinical usefulness this time. After examining it, we concluded that it was not worth reimbursement.” revealed.
According to the HIRA, at the time of the review, one overseas country, Japan, was applying health insurance benefits, but the Japanese government also completely excluded benefits regardless of whether eye drops were used for internal or exogenous diseases last August.
An official from the HIRA said, “The results of the deliberation have not yet been finalized,” and “We will ultimately decide whether to exclude benefits by considering social needs such as cost and effectiveness, price comparison with alternative drugs, and the balloon effect.”
HIRA plans to receive objections from pharmaceutical companies by next week, examine the basis for the adequacy of benefits, and then go through the Pharmaceutical Review Committee again to make a final decision in December.