RO Senate defers co-payment for private healthcare providers

Romanian private healthcare service providers will be entitled to ask individual customers to make supplementary payments (co-payments) for the services provided under contract with the public healthcare insurance system only after April 2025 and not starting this April, according to an amendment operated by Romanian senators to a bill drafted by the Government, Economica.net reported.

The co-payments mentioned in the text are supplementary payments asked by private hospitals or medical clinics from people insured in the public system who come to them for medical services that are covered by the public health insurance.

The private hospitals that have signed a contract with the National Health Insurance House - CNAS are entitled to receive from the public budget the same amount as state hospitals receive for similar services, which often fails to cover the costs incurred by private operators.

Until now, the private hospitals used to charge extra for related services, and the Government’s bill was aimed at regulating the payments transparently.

Separately, the private hospitals are given access, under the bill passed by the Senate, to the so-called “national health programs” dedicated to chronic diseases, explained the chairman of the Health Committee, senator Laszlo Attila.

However, within these programs, they can not charge a co-payment on top of the money received from the public budget.

The senators also took out of the bill some provisions from the ordinance drafted by the Government, such as the one allowing private operators to also provide emergency services.

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