Bulgaria implements real-time digital drug verification

The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has launched a real-time digital control system through the National Health Information System (NHIS) to monitor the dispensing of medications. The new measure uses 2D codes on packaging to verify the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) against the national prescription number at the moment of sale.

If the system detects a discrepancy between the physical product and the reported data, it automatically blocks the transaction at the pharmacy counter. This prevents the sale from being finalized before the patient leaves the premises. This real-time verification replaces previous methods that relied on retrospective audits, which often identified errors months after payments were made.

The initiative follows joint inspections by the NHIF, the State Agency for National Security (SANS), and the Ministry of Interior's economic police. Investigations across 21 pharmacies in 12 regions revealed instances where medication national numbers did not match GTIN codes, resulting in over 1 million euros in unjustified budget expenditures. Dr. Vladimir Daskalov, manager of the NHIF, stated that the measure aims to prevent abuses rather than merely detecting them after the fact, noting that compliant pharmacies should not experience changes to their workflow.