Excessive markups on prescription drugs billed by the Barmherzige Brüder pharmacy to its own hospital triggered a frozen provincial payment dispute in 2018, burgenland.ORF.at reported.
Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ) initiated the freeze following allegations that the religious order’s pharmacy was charging the hospital excessive surcharges. The dispute, which spanned multiple legal issues, reached a formal settlement in November 2020.
The 2020 agreement overhauled the mechanics of medicine billing between the institution and the province. Under the revised terms, pre-tax pharmacy profit is split based on the revenue ratio between the public retail operation and the hospital supply chain. Any profit tied to hospital deliveries is returned to the facility as a revenue bonus.
Robert Maurer, business manager of the Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Brüder, explained the structural shift.
“Im Wesentlichen wurde die Preisgestaltung dahingehend umgestellt, dass in der Apotheke kein ungerechtfertigter Gewinn stehen bleibt,” Maurer told burgenland.ORF.at.
Prices charged to the hospital remain governed by the official pharmaceutical tax schedule, which dictates standard markups and operational profits.
“Die Preise, die in das Krankenhaus verrechnet werden, sind auch Preise, die in der Apothekentaxe festgeschrieben sind – mit unterschiedlichen Aufschlägen,” Maurer told burgenland.ORF.at, adding that the returned profits serve public health and patient care.
The settlement also established a path to transition the Eisenstadt clinic into a GmbH structure, which will include a provincial supervisory board. Once current hospital renovations are complete, plans include transferring the internal hospital pharmacy into this new corporate entity.
Until that internal dispensary opens, the existing profit-splitting model remains in place, routing hospital supply earnings back to the GmbH as a bonus.
“Für das Land ist damit sichergestellt, dass Medikamente zu marktkonformen Preisen verrechnet werden und keine Übergewinne zu Lasten der öffentlichen Hand entstehen,” the province said on Friday, as reported by burgenland.ORF.at.
