Skip to main content
25-07-2022

Covered by health insurance funds: thousands of patients use medical devices at home

Iliustracija

More than 1 600 patients a year take advantage of the opportunity to rent medical devices from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (CHIF) and use them at home. This is often the only way for patients to avoid long-term hospitalisation and relieve the financial burden of expensive but vital treatment.

People can rent and use oxygen and artificial lung ventilation machines, simple or smart insulin pumps and infusion (so-called pain) pumps at home. The rental costs of all these devices are 100% covered by the CHIF for those patients who need them for home healthcare. This is decided by a consortium of doctors.

"We can be pleased that people who need life-saving treatment with oxygen or artificial lung ventilation no longer have to stay in hospital just to have access to the expensive machines they need. Diabetic patients who are unable to purchase or rent insulin pumps on their own and oncology patients in excruciating pain who are unable to purchase infusion pumps on their own can also benefit from the reimbursement of the rental of the devices and thus improve their quality of life," says Giedrius Baranauskas, Head of the Medical Devices Reimbursement Division of the National Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health.

Oxygen treatment or continuous artificial lung ventilation is provided to patients diagnosed with chronic respiratory failure. Health insurance funds cover the cost of renting these machines for around 1000 patients each year. This year, until July, this required more than €800,000 of CHIF funds.

Since April this year, insulin pumps reimbursed by the CHIF have been available to all patients with type 1 diabetes, pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant (for up to one year, when diabetes is uncontrolled), and to patients on the CHIF's waiting list for an islet transplant.

"We are seeing more and more people taking advantage of the opportunity to rent insulin pumps from the CHIF every year. While more than 400 patients needed this service the year before last, last year - 650, in the first half of this year - close to 750 patients have already needed it. By July this year, about EUR 1.2 million from the CHIF had been spent on this", says Mr. Baranauskas.

Health insurance funds also pay for the rental of infusion pumps. These are used for patients diagnosed with tumours to provide continuous control of severe or unbearable chronic pain when strong opioid analgesics fail to relieve it.

Seeing the growing need for patients to rent expensive medical equipment, this year the funding was more than doubled, with €8.5 million from the CHIF.

Health insurance funds remind patients that if they want to rent the equipment they need, they need to apply to companies that have a contract with the National Health Insurance Fund for reimbursement of the cost of renting the medical devices needed for home healthcare, with the opinion of a tertiary level medical panel. The chosen company will sign a contract with the health insurance for the issue of the device, warranty, ongoing maintenance and the supply of spare parts.

For more information on the rental of medical devices and a list of the companies that issue these devices, see here.

(Piktochart pict.)

The NHIF invites you:

Your questions are welcome by email[email protected]or phone: local (8 5) 232 2222, international +370 5 232 222

Last updated: 25-08-2022

Related news:

Health budget in 2025: what benefits did we receive?

The right to be informed: what is important to know about reimbursable healthcare

Tens of millions of euros for residents’ health: for whom and how are medication co-payments covered?

Study reveals: a family doctor’s advice determines the decision to get checked

Unexpected ailments during the holidays: where to turn and what to know