Brothers of Mercy hospital defends medicine markups after report
Thursday 12th November 2026 on 21:01 in
Austria
The Brothers of Mercy hospital in Eisenstadt says its medicine price markups are justified, after German magazine Der Spiegel reported markups of up to 1,000%, ORF Burgenland reported.
The hospital’s public pharmacy became the focus of a dispute with the Burgenland government in 2018. Governor Hans Peter Doskozil, of the Social Democratic Party, alleged that the pharmacy was charging the hospital excessive markups on medicines. The state then stopped payments to the hospital.
The ensuing legal dispute, which went beyond the pharmacy, ended in a settlement in 2020. The state’s lawyer, Johannes Zink, said the historical contract governing billing had gaps, leaving both sides with strong arguments. He said the priority was ensuring good care, while maintaining strict accounting.
Under the settlement, the pharmacy’s pre-tax profit is divided according to the share of revenue generated by its public pharmacy and by supplying the hospital. The portion attributed to hospital supplies is credited back to the hospital as a turnover bonus, said Robert Maurer, the hospital’s managing director.
ORF reported that higher medicine prices are still charged, but the resulting profit does not remain with the religious order. Maurer said the prices billed to the hospital are set in the pharmacy tariff, with different markups. He said it was legitimate for the pharmacy to make a profit as long as the hospital-related share was returned and used to support care.
The 2020 settlement also provided for the hospital to become a limited liability company, with the state holding a seat on its supervisory board. The hospital pharmacy is to be incorporated into the company and established as part of the hospital’s renovation, but it is not yet operating. Until it opens, the profit-sharing arrangement will remain in place, the state said.
The state said the arrangement ensures medicines are billed at market rates and prevents excessive profits at public expense. Neither the state nor the hospital’s management would comment on Thursday on how the religious order’s pharmacies handle medicine billing in other Austrian states.