· Aug 16, 2021

Sleep apnea: unilateral decision of the CEPS to lower CPAP prices

Background :

This article follows the publication in the Journal Officiel (JO) on Friday 13 August of the lowering of tariffs for CPAP.

Friday's JO published a decision by the CEPS lowering the tariffs and sale limit prices (PLV) of certain packages for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea by continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as of 1 September, in the absence of a conventional agreement with the professional organisations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CEPS states that it has deliberated no less than seven times on this file since February. A first draft agreement was sent in May to the Snitem, Synalam, Upsadi, UNPDM, Snadom and Synapsad. All these organisations refused to sign it and a new draft was sent to them in July.

In front of this lack of signature, the CEPS noted an "absence of counter-proposal from the professional organisations" and applied a tariffs reduction due to :

- The age of the registration of these medical devices and associated services;

- The very dynamic evolution of expenses reimbursed by the health insurance" (+28% between 2017 and 2020);

- The net amount of rebates for the related packages invoiced to the compulsory health insurance (812 million euros in 2020);

- The purchase price of products and services "recorded by health establishments or wholesale or retail distributors, considering discounts, rebates and similar commercial and financial advantages of any kind granted.

According to all these reasons and in the absence of an agreement, the CEPS has decided on a two-stage revision with a significant reduction in prices and PLV as of 1 September, followed by a very slight increase as of 1 March 2022.  It also sets a maximum transfer price "in order to allow a minimum margin to be achieved by the retail distributor". 

 

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