Pharmacies now check every medicine paid for by the national health insurance fund at the counter, before handing it over, the Ministry of Health said. If the code on the pack does not match the prescribed drug, the sale is stopped.

Until now, mismatches only came to light in later checks, months after the fund had paid.

The check runs through the National Health Information System (NHIS). The pharmacy software scans the 2D code on the pack and sends the GTIN, the code of the specific product, to the system, along with other data on the filled prescription. The central system immediately compares it with the national number of the drug that was prescribed and reported.

If the pack in the pharmacist's hands does not match the data in the software, an error message appears on screen and the transaction is rejected automatically.

The rule was introduced after inspections at 21 pharmacies in 12 regions of Bulgaria. Inspectors found cases where the national number of the drug did not match the code on the pack. In those cases, more than €1m was wrongly paid out of the budget.

"Every pack paid for with public money is now checked the moment it leaves the pharmacy," said Dr Vladimir Daskalov, head of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). He said abuse is now stopped in time instead of being found late. "Honest pharmacies will not notice any change in their work," he added.

Automatic reporting of filled prescriptions has run since the start of 2026, and the new check builds on it. According to Informatsionno Obslujvane AD, errors in handing out drugs covered by the NHIF have fallen by more than 98% since reporting and online checks at the time of prescribing were introduced.