Bulgarian Doctors to Appeal Health Fund's Rejection of Framework Contracts

The Bulgarian Medical Association is determined to appeal the national healthcare fund's decision not to sign the 2015 Framework Contract which envisages an increase in prices of some medical services.

On Tuesday the National Health Insurance Fund (NZOK) announced that making some medicaments and services more expensive would also push up the the fund's deficit by BGN 12 M, the equivalent of a funding gap it would be facing in payment to hospitals.

However, the BMA believes some clinical pathways require a substantial increase that exceeds ten percent in the case of infectious diseases.

Yulian Yordanov, BMA Deputy Chair, told the Bulgarian National Radio that "the framework contract and an agreement on prices and volumes [that have to be funded by the NZOK] are two separate things that are normally signed one after the other."

In Yordanov's words, additional funding would only improve the quality of medical services and would help Bulgarian healthcare to boserve a worldwide trend of increasing the focus on prophylaxis.

The refusal to sign a National Framework Contract for 2015 means that the last contract, to which both sides agreed in 2014, will remain in force with the agreed values of the medical services pertaining to it.

At the same time, under the law the lack of a framework contract obliges the NZOK to unilaterally submit a prices and volumes proposal to the Council of Ministers (Bulgaria's government).

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