Private hospitals in Romania, unhappy with Govt.’s proposal for market liberalisation

The largest private medical services providers in Romania, including MedLife, Sanador, Regina Maria, Polisano, Monza, Medicover, Ponderas, and Synevo, among others, plan to pull out of the cooperation with the public healthcare system if they are compelled to deliver emergency services and treat patients with chronic diseases at the cost set by the authorities for public hospitals.

An emergency ordinance adopted by the Government on February 4, which hasn’t been published in the Official Gazette yet, provides that private hospitals will be allowed to take emergency cases and take part in national health programs for treating patients with chronic diseases, which was not possible until now.

However, the private hospitals will be reimbursed for these services the same sums as public hospitals get. Moreover, they will not be allowed to charge their patients extra through the so-called copayment.

The private hospitals argue that the fees set by the authorities for the public hospitals are below the actual costs of the services delivered and argue against the provision in the ordinance that forbids supplementary payments (copayment), local Hotnews.ro reported. Specifically, the private healthcare providers association announced that it plans not to renew the annual contracts with the public healthcare system.

Private hospitals in Romania currently deliver some services for which they get reimbursed by the state health insurance house (CNAS), family medicine and medical examinations, for example, but also charge their patients extra for some of these services.

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