HPI

National Transplant Organization will be a coordination part of all transplant processes with exactly set tasks and mandates. Among other things, it will be issuing the written approval necessary for providers who provide the export of tissues and cells out of Slovakia. This results from the amendment to the act on health care signed by President Ivan Gašparovič. Ministry of Health will be responsible for establishing of the transplant organization. 

Medical Trade Union claims that if the public procurements in hospitals were effective, there could be € 36 million saved per year. Association of Faculty Hospitals protest against this statement and call on Medical Trade Union to immediately stop slandering the directors of university and faculty hospitals. President of the Association pointed out that hospitals act in accordance with the legislation even in the situations when some of them spent 100% of their incomes from health insurance companies just for salaries. 

Medical emergency professionals will probably have their own chamber. This is assumed in the proposal of the amendment to the act on healthcare providers, which has been submitted to the commentary proceeding by the Ministry of Health. According to the Ministry, the practice has shown that new adjustment for emergency professionals is necessary in order to fulfil the obligation of continuing education and its evaluation, as well as due to the diversity and complexity of actual performance of the profession. 

Project of creation of one health insurance company made by the Ministry of Health has aroused the Slovak analysts. They absolutely do not agree with the implementation of one health insurance company. Analysts are collecting the signatures under collective comment, which has been already signed by people from HPI, INEKO and INESS Institutes, M. R. Štefánik Conservative Institute, M.E.S.A. 10 – Centre for economic and social analysis or the Forum of Independent Opinions.

Association of Hospitals in Slovakia does not agree with the statement of Medical Trade Union that resources for increasing of salaries of doctors can be found in the better management of hospitals. Association claims that hospitals are currently giving more than 80% of their incomes from health insurance companies to salaries and they do not have any possibility or space for efficient management of their institutions. Association also claims that Trade Union has not submitted any principal proposals of system solution for stabilization and development of the healthcare system.

The case of lack of oncological pharmaceuticals from June this year should never be repeated again. Ministry of Health plans to prevent it by monitoring of the export of pharmaceuticals. In the case of possibility of lack of pharmaceuticals on our market the State Institute for Drug Control will prohibit the re-export. As she added, it is not any undue interference into the free business of pharmaceutical companies. 

The presence of private health insurance companies on the market, according to the Minister of Health, did not meet the expectations. Plurality of health insurance companies has, according to her, overcharged the healthcare system. She considers the purchasing of private health insurance companies as the best investment for the future. How much it would cost, she could not say. Her predecessor Ivan Uhliarik claims that system of one health insurance company means a return 20 years back. He claims that it is necessary to tighten the conditions under which the private health insurance companies would be able to draw the profit. 

Bonuses and discounts, offered by pharmacies in loyalty systems, will probably end next year. Government has approved the proposal of Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská, which prohibits them. Pharmacies will be able to offer the discounts by over-the-counter pharmaceuticals even after the governmental ban only if they would not mean a bonus for purchasing of prescription pharmaceuticals. If Parliament and President will approve this amendment, also the purchasing of vaccines and determination of the prices of pharmaceuticals on prescription will be changed.

Pharmaceuticals for cardiac, diabetic and allergic patients will be cheaper. Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská is planning from the next year to decrease the surcharges of patients at the expense of health insurance companies. These will annually pay for pharmaceuticals totally € 4 million more than in the past. This is involved in the amendment to the Decree, which Zvolenská intends to submit to the commentary proceeding. Zvolenská is adjusting the rules set by her predecessor Ivan Uhliarik. 

81% of Slovaks agree with the possibility of choice of Health Insurance Company (HIC). This results from the survey of TNS Agency, according to which 57% of respondents have expressed the strong agreement with such possibility. The vast majority of respondents, namely 62%, according to the survey consider the control of using of money as a major factor for improving of the situation in healthcare system. It is a public control of resources in the healthcare system, which should be according to the President of the Association of Health Insurance Companies, Katarína Kafková, solved with higher priority than cancellation of health insurance companies.