Press release - Communication

Secretaria Regional da Saúde e Segurança Social

In view of the doubts that have arisen regarding co-payment for diabetics, as well as the misinformation unfortunately spread by some political forces in the Region, the Government of the Azores clarifies the following:

1. Decree no. 170/2025/1 of April 10, issued by the Secretary of State for Health, created an exceptional co-payment scheme covering health technologies for blood glucose self-monitoring and diabetes mellitus control, which includes medicines included in the therapeutic category of GLP-1 analogues and the medical device sensor for determining interstitial glucose.

2. The Order was published on April 10, 2025, and came into force on August 8, 2025, replacing Order no. 187/2022 of July 22.

3. The Government of the Azores, through the Regional Secretariat for Health and Social Security/Regional Directorate for Health, immediately assumed that, as with the reimbursement of other medicines or medical devices, the scheme in question would be fully applicable to the Region, since it regulates Decree-Law no. 97/2015 of June 1, which creates the National Health Technology Assessment System, amended by Decree-Law no. 115/2017 of September 7.

4. Furthermore, since at least 1989, it has been determined that the list of reimbursed medicines or medical devices approved for the National Health Service applies to the Regional Health Service.

5. The Government of the Azores not only firmly believes that the scheme in question applies automatically to the Region, but has also introduced an exceptional manual prescription mechanism to ensure co-payment and equal treatment for Regional Health Service users, considering that the process regarding the Electronic Prescription of Medicines is currently being implemented and developed. This process began with the signing of a cooperation protocol on April 3, 2024, to provide the Regional Health Service with access to the information systems operated by the National Health Service, thereby ensuring the sharing of information between the Autonomous Region of the Azores and Mainland Portugal, as well as shared access between health professionals and users.

6. Two external entities, namely SPMS, S.A. -  Shared Services of the Ministry of Health and the National Association of Pharmacies, expressed a contrary opinion on the matter. The former did so unilaterally and without prior consultation with the Region, rendering reimbursement impossible for users covered by the Ordinance. This led the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Secretariat for Health and Social Security/Regional Directorate for Health, to issue Information Circular no. DRS-CINF/2025/11 on August 18, 2025. 

7. After immediate contact with SPMS, S.A. and the National Association of Pharmacies, the applicability of the aforementioned ordinance to the Region was validated and confirmed, with a commitment to urgently solve access to co-payment. Furthermore, the National Association of Pharmacies proceeded accordingly regarding its member pharmacies in the Region.