C48

Prospective affecting provision: section inserted by Health Insurance (Amendment) and Health (Provision of Menopause Products) Act 2024 (42/2024), s. 4, not commenced as of date of revision.

F149[67F.—(1) Subject to subsection (3), and sections 20 and 23 of the Act of 2013, the Health Service Executive shall make available for supply without charge menopause products for women who—

(a) are ordinarily resident in the State, and

(b) have been prescribed menopause products by—

(i) a registered medical practitioner, or

(ii) a registered nurse or registered midwife entitled pursuant to any enactment to prescribe the menopause products so supplied.

(2) A woman referred to in subsection (1) shall be entitled to receive menopause products from a pharmacy provider.

(3) This section shall not apply to women with full eligibility who avail of the service under section 59(1).

(4) The Minister may, following consultation with the Health Service Executive, by regulation prescribe—

(a) the form and manner in which the Health Service Executive shall reimburse a pharmacy provider who has dispensed menopause products in accordance with this section,

(b) the form and manner in which a pharmacy provider shall claim for reimbursement from the Health Service Executive for the dispensing of menopause products in accordance with this section,

(c) such forms as may be necessary for the purposes of paragraphs (a) and (b), and

(d) such additional, incidental, consequential or supplemental matters as the Minister considers necessary or expedient for the purposes of giving effect to this section.

(5) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it has been made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(6) In this section—

"Act of 2011" means the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011;

"Act of 2013" means the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013;

"enactment" has the same meaning as it has in section 2(1) of the Interpretation Act 2005;

"menopause" means, in relation to a woman, the various stages related to menopause and includes perimenopause, post menopause, early menopause, premature menopause and medically induced menopause;

"menopause products" means hormone replacement therapy drugs, medicines and surgical and medical appliances used to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, which are for the time being on the Reimbursement List;

"pharmacy provider" means a retail pharmacy business (within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Pharmacy Act 2007) which has entered into or agreed to enter into an arrangement with the Health Service Executive for the dispensing of menopause products to women referred to in subsection (1);

"registered medical practitioner" has the same meaning as it has in section 2(1) of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007;

"registered midwife" has the same meaning as it has in section 2(1) of the Act of 2011;

"registered nurse" has the same meaning as it has in section 2(1) of the Act of 2011;

"Reimbursement List" has the same meaning as it has in section 2(1) of the Act of 2013.]