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Tag: financing
Robert Fico´s Government plans to implement strict control of hospital management. Government, however, does not want to continue with the transformation of hospitals into joint-stock companies, intended by the previous Government. Fico's cabinet will allegedly not admit the privatization of economically lucrative activities of hospitals and will create the conditions for their financial stabilization. Government will not transform the university, faculty and public hospitals into joint-stock companies in the next 4 years. This way it wants to prevent their privatization and reducing of the quality of provided health care, as well as the threatening of the existence of hospitals.
Long promised quick measure, which should avert the collapse in healthcare system, seems to be useless for now. Minister of Health Zuzana Zvolenská still does not know how to transfer € 50 million from the state budget reserve into the healthcare system. There is an annual need of € 100 million for higher salaries of healthcare professionals. Until Zvolenská finds a solution, Ministry of Finance will not release the reserve money.
Healthcare Surveillance Authority (HCSA) last year imposed penalizations for breach or default of policyholders' or premium payers' obligations in total amount exceeding € 1.9 million. For now, about € 700 000 of this amount was recovered. The most common case is non-payment of monthly health insurance contributions on time and in correct amount.
According to the Minister of Health, Zuzana Zvolenská, with no additional funding from the state, the healthcare system is threatened with the collapse. Zvolenská said, the state-owned Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) may increase the payments to the health care providers by € 3 million per month. There is, however, a need of € 11 million monthly to cover the mandatorily increased salaries; next year it will be € 15 million. Predecessor of Zvolenská, Ivan Uhliarik has a different opinion and claims that from May this year the health insurance companies will save € 41 - € 49 million on purchasing of cheaper pharmaceuticals.
According to Minister of Health, Zuzana Zvolenská, the profit does not belong to health insurance companies and also thus it would be good for Slovakia to have only one health insurance company. Minister wants to deal with the profit of insurance companies highly expertly, not politically. She therefore promised that objective proposal will be submitted only in case, if it is in accordance with the Constitution and international legislation.
Slovak Medical Chamber of Specialists proposes in up to two years to increase the payments for state policyholders on minimum of 5%. Government should, according to the union, also commit itself for seeking of the fair solutions of the problem with increasing of salaries of healthcare professionals. In the terms of private outpatient clinics it is, according to the president of union, unacceptable to disadvantage the healthcare professionals in these institutions in any way against other types of institutions, especially the state ones.
Statements about the profit prohibition of the insurance companies may be allegedly used against the Slovak Republic. According to advocate Jana Martinková, in case when implementation of the planned measures in legislation sphere will affect the property rights of the shareholders of health insurance companies and there will be further disputes with state, exactly these statements may be used against Slovakia. Shareholders might, according to her, be able to speak about the intention to harm their rights and the real public interest and protection of constitutional rights of policyholders might be unnecessarily pushed into the background.
Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) could get more money from new way of risk-adjusted redistribution of insurance contributions between health insurance companies for the first time in October this year. This should by brought by the amendment to the Act on health insurance submitted to the Parliament by Richard Raši. Risk adjustment should be calculated by the Healthcare Surveillance Authority.
Debt in healthcare system has decreased last year almost by € 131.2 million thanks to the bail-out of the state-owned hospitals. At the end of last year the debt was € 154.01 million. This results from the report on the development of debts in the health sector. Hospitals in the scope of self-governmental units have the biggest problem with indebtedness and they owe the most to the suppliers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
Redistribution of health insurance contributions should be adjusted by a new parameter – morbidity (through PCG). This should be one of the system solutions which minister Zuzana Zvolenská wants to implement in the effort to find money for higher salaries of healthcare professionals. Contributions from policyholders are currently redistributed by Health Care Surveillance Authority on the basis of age, sex and economic activity of patients. Adding the predictor of morbidity would allegedly mean that the state-owned Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (General Health Insurance Company) would get additional € 30 million from private health insurance companies.
