“Zesar” founded in Cologne

29.03.2011 17:34

Establish private health insurance and assistance Central collection point for drug discounts (Zesar)

Since the beginning of 2011, the legally introduced drug discounts have also been valid for privately insured people. The Association of Private Health Insurance (PKV) and the sponsors of the aid have founded the joint venture “Zesar” in Cologne for this purpose. In the future, the “Central Office for the Billing of Drug Discounts” will assert the new discount claims against drug manufacturers for the 43 member companies of the PKV Association and the approximately 11,000 aid agencies in Germany.

According to the “Law to reorganize the pharmaceutical market” (AMNOG), insured persons must first pay the full price of the medication at the pharmacy checkout. Zesar then demands the statutory manufacturer's discount of 16 percent from the pharmaceutical companies. For this purpose, the collection point receives anonymized prescription data from the private health insurance companies and subsidy providers and forwards the data relevant to the discounts to the pharmaceutical companies at regular intervals. Zesar then returns the discounts achieved to the insurers and aid agencies.

The money goes directly to the insured. According to legal requirements, the discounts are used exclusively to reduce premiums or to reduce premiums. The industry expects that the savings for private health insurance and aid will amount to around 300 million euros per year.

Zesar's managing directors are Christian Hälker for the PKV Association and Joachim Schmidt from the Finance Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia for the aid.