Financial Monitoring of Medication Consumption in Bosnia and Herzegovina

healthcare system practice as its share in GDP has constantly increased during past decades, which is now above 10% of GDP in developed countries. However, very often it is more of an issue related to the current political and socio-economic situation in a country rather than the one managed by experts. Although one might expect that the increase in healthcare spending contributes to better health of the population, relevant indicators show that high healthcare spending in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) does not result in better health of its population. Due to this reason, special attention needs to be paid to the economic analysis of healthcare spending. Irrational use of medications is just one of many problems associated with an inefficient health system, but one that heavily impacts on the health economics. In situations where it may not be easy to change the existing financing models, we should explore how to be more effective in spending within the existing structure. Better control of medication consumption could be one of the actions that helps improve the effectiveness of the available budget. Therefore, the general aim of the paper is to determine the effect that financial monitoring of medication consumption has on the control of increase in healthcare spending, which in turn might help establishing a financially sustainable healthcare system. Bearing in mind that irrational usage of medications influences the access to healthcare services, destabilizes country’s budget, and endangers the margin of social sustainability (endurance), the constant financial monitoring of medication consumption is important as it can help us recognize those segments where consumption deviates from standard and where prevention activities are needed. All this can result in the limitation of further increase in medication consumption.