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05-07-2022

More than 100 million Euro will be invested into primary healthcare in five years

Iliustracija

Initiating the development of general practice and health centres, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is planning changes for payments to healthcare services, enabling to ensure economic viability of healthcare institutions and increase the availability and quality of healthcare services.

In the next five years, general practice service quality and availability improvement should receive more than 100 million Eur of additional investments, 48 million Eur of which will be allocated for infrastructure upgrades, 6 million Eur – qualification improvements of the expert physicians (from the European Union funds of 2021-2027) and approximately 10 million Eur every year will be allocated for the general practice operations from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund (CHIF).

Additional funds are planned to allocate more experts to general practice teams: nurses, obstetricians, nurse assistants, social workers, physical therapists and other healthcare specialists. They will not only provide individual outpatient services based on their competence, but also be able to take up case management. This will enable to ease the load on the GP by transferring some of the responsibilities to other members of the team. An estimated demand of CHIF funds for this purpose is approximately 10 million Eur every year (the demand for funding would increase with the growing number of the team members).

With plans to increase funding every year, the goal is to have the general physician teams fully formed by 2030.

Currently, health care institutions are submitting information on the number of specialists, working in their GP teams and their work load. Upon evaluating the information received, the health insurance funds will start consistently increasing the coverage of primary outpatient healthcare as of the following year, based on the increasing GP team of each specific medical institution.

The model of a healthcare centre will bring a balance between the demand for healthcare services and the value created for the patient, reducing the number of services that do not create added value and improving the availability of specialised and quality services.

Annual reviews and updates of the GP lists of incentive bonuses and good work results will start already next year, in order to make sure that the funding allocated complies with the current needs and ensures that patients are actually provided with quality services for patients.

The said changes will also include updates on the funding for the GP examination basket. The Ministry of Health and the NHIF also have a clear vision of the funding of the examinations, prescribed by a GP, applied in the course of the reform. Preparation works are already taking place with the development of an examination classifier and the information system it needs. The results of this study will provide a picture of the examinations, conducted by general physicians, enabling to calculate the demand for funding for the examinations, needed by different age groups. Based on the data, provided by treatment institutions, it is expected to have the final calculations and the legal and financial base for the implementation of the examination fund already next year.

Information from NHIF and the Press Service of the Ministry of Health

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The NHIF invites you:

Your questions are welcome by email[email protected]or phone: local (8 5) 232 2222, international +370 5 232 22

Last updated: 20-07-2022

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