Payback, 75% discount on invoices but no exemption for small enterprises

Biomedical companies will have to pay 25% of the payback demanded by the Regions. With the Mef decree comes the long-awaited, though not definitive, solution to the hated cut-off that from 2022 requires companies in a sector worth more than 18 billion to pay back to the regions half of the overrun of the ceiling on hospital purchases of medical devices. The 75% discount, however, will be applied to the initial sum demanded to date for the years from 2015 to 2018 - 2 billion, later reduced to 1 billion after an initial intervention by the government - and therefore the sum that companies will have to pay is around 500 million (half of what is still owed). The obligations for companies supplying medical devices 'are understood to be discharged,' reads the draft decree, 'with the payment, in favour of the regions, within 30 days from the date of entry into force' of the decree, which must now be converted within 60 days. In short, immediately after the summer, the companies will have to pay the outstanding invoices - some companies have actually already paid the full amount - renouncing 'any further jurisdictional action', indeed the Regions themselves will have to communicate the payment to the Lazio TAR 'determining the cessation of the matter in dispute' given the appeals that have been filed. The discount will be covered through the establishment of a fund of 360 million at the Ministry of the Economy with the allocation of the quotas due to the Regions already provided for in an annex, while the Regions themselves should renounce about 120 million to arrive at the 75% discount on the 2015-2018 payback amount: from the initial 2 billion, the amount will rise to about 500 million.

We will continue the discussion with the government and the parliament so that the fundamental measures for the protection of small and medium-sized businesses, for which we had strongly demanded payback exemption mechanisms, will be included in the conversion review. We hope that this is only the first chapter of a broader sector manoeuvre, capable of definitively overcoming the payback for future years and laying the foundations for building sector governance and relaunching the competitiveness of Italian companies. Let us not forget, however, that the payback, as sanctioned by the Constitutional Court and the TAR, must remain a temporary measure. It is important to keep the Technical Table at the Mef active in order to define effective implementation measures, identify solutions for the residual payback, and initiate a structural reform. The relaunch of our country's competitiveness also passes through the awareness that sectors such as medical devices must be protected and supported Guido BeccaguttI General Director Confindustria dispositivi medici