Thursday, 27 December 2012
Prices For Medical Services And Drugs To Be Regulated
Chaired by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the Cabinet held today this year’s last sitting in the Office of Government.
Considering the fact that almost all developed and some developing countries are widely using direct and indirect methods of price regulation for medicines and sometimes for medical services, the Government has set up an inter-departmental commission to regulate indicative prices for basic medical services and drugs included in the primary package of health insurance benefits. The meeting approved its composition and activities.
Chaired by the Minister of Finance, the Commission will be able to solve the following problems: have medical institutions of the same category offer similar prices for medical services, apply transparent pricing mechanisms, make more transparent pricing of medical services and medicines, stabilize the price of medical services and medicines, as well as that of State-supported health insurance and finally expand access to medicines and health care services.
With another decision, the Government approved the procedure for providing social benefits, the content included in the package and other documents.
The Government called on the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources to pay over 126 million drams to HayRusgasard CJSC from the profits received as a result of retrofitting, optimizing and reforming the system of state-owned companies as partial compensation for the appropriate amount of natural gas consumed by vulnerable households in July-September, 2012.
The meeting heard the tax liability compliance reports of the ministers of Healthcare (Derenik Dumanyan – agenda item N1), Finance (Vache Gabrielyan – agenda item N24), Justice (Hrayr Tovmasyan – agenda item N43), Nature Protection (Aram Haroutunyan – agenda item N44), Urban Development (Samvel Tadevosyan – agenda item N45) and Agriculture (Sergo Karapetyan – agenda item N46).
To arrange the building of Hamazgayin Theater, the Government proposed to the Mayor of Yerevan to donate to the Republic of Armenia a 1.200 square meter-wide plot of land in the area adjacent to the intersection of Buzand and Saryan streets. It should be established that being a public property of the Republic of Armenia, the land may be used only for the construction of Hamazgayin Theater. The meeting noted that the specified building shall be funded by the Sos Sargsyan cultural foundation.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan addressed the audience: “I am taking the opportunity to thank you all for joint efforts made in 2012. While it was quite a challenging year, we can state now that we have achieved both the political (parliamentary elections) and economic targets. All the proposed basic indicators have been met, including the ones set before us by the President of the Republic of Armenia. I wish you all a Happy New Year and Christmas. May the year 2013 be successful for us and our people.”
