Thursday, July 27 2017 18:35

ArmInfo.Since September 1, 2017 in Armenia, a new procedure for providing medical services within the state package to state employees comes into force. The bill,  providing for relevant changes, was approved at a meeting of the Government on July 27. "This bill can be considered as a pilot, for further introduction of the system of compulsory social health insurance in Armenia," Minister of Healthcare Levon Altunyan said  after the meeting of the government, responding to the question of ArmInfo.

According to the head of the Ministry of Health, from September 1,  the beneficiaries of the program will have to apply to their insurer,  present a passport or ID-card. "No other documents or certificates  will be needed." Then the relationship between the insurance company  and the medical institution comes into force," he explained.

In addition, the bill provides for a postpaid system for the  calculation of hospital services within the program. Settlements with  medical institutions are carried out at the beginning of the fiscal  year. The main minus of the current order, as explained by the  minister, is that medical facilities that are popular with patients,  even before the end of the calendar year, spend the limit they have  allocated. "From now on, the sum will be kept in the reserve fund  with the insurance company and be credited to the clinic account  after the call of the beneficiary of the program that asked to be  treated to the insurance company," explained Altunyan, noting that  civil servants can choose their own medical facilities for treatment  within the social package.

The number of beneficiaries at this stage, as the minister said, is  from 80 to 100 thousand people. If this pilot program is successfully  implemented, after 6 months, the Ministry of Health will propose a  draft decision, according to which 612 thousand socially  disadvantaged citizens will be included in the program.  A year after  receiving positive results, the process of introducing compulsory  health insurance will begin in the country.  According to the  minister, the Ministry of Health is determined to implement  compulsory social health insurance and the department hopes that the  government will not go on reducing healthcare subsidies. If, however,  the Government decides to reduce medical costs, as envisaged in the  draft medium-term expenditure for 2018-2020, the Ministry of Health,  which previously initiated the development of a program to improve  the efficiency of the area by reducing mainly administrative costs,  hopes to reduce the budget by saving money without reducing The  quality of the services provided, as well as to keep the planned  program for the insurance of 612,000 socially unsecured citizens. The  required amount of AMD 14 billion (25-28 thousand AMD per year per  person) will be provided from the budget of the Ministry of Health  and partly from the budget of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

Talks about the introduction of MHI in Armenia became more active in  2014. As the head of the State Health Agency Saro Tsaturyan stated  then, the draft concept of introducing compulsory health insurance  was developed and submitted to the government, however, for reasons  unknown to him, the process was inhibited. It was planned that health  insurance would be mandatory for all working citizens in both the  public and private sectors. The head of the agency noted that work on  the development of the concept will continue if a political decision  is made. "It's a long way from concept to implementation, it's not  such an easy and fast process, but if there is a fundamental  decision, the process will move towards the goal," he said.

They returned to this topic after the appointment of Levon Altunyan,  head of the Ministry of Health, before heading the leading IC INGO  Armenia. On October 13, 2016, commenting on the prospects of  implementing the MLA in Armenia, ArmInfo stated that he considers it  possible to implement the institute Compulsory medical insurance  (CHI). "I think that our government will study and possibly  eventually give preference to MHI as the only possible effective  method of financing medical services," he said.