New medical services in Romania
With the introduction of the new medical service package as of June the 1st, Romanians should go to see their family doctors more often.
Florentin Căpitănescu, 02.06.2014, 12:25
Although Romania boasts an impressively high number of health reforms, they failed to revitalise a system which has been agonising for many years now. Just like in the field of education, another national priority, healthcare continues to be a victim of the reforms in the field, a sign that the authorities’ perseverance has no limits.
In time, the Romanians saw uninspired reforms overlapping the lack of financial resources, such as the drain of Romanian doctors, who left the country in search of better-paid jobs abroad. As was expected, the results were soon to appear and are still visible. The authorities hope that things will change for the better with the introduction of the new medical service package, as of June the 1st.
The most important novelty brought by the new package is the fact that patients under 39 should see their family doctors at least once in three years’ time, whereas those who have turned 40 are examined every year. Although prophylaxis alongside specific treatments are mandatory, those who don’t go to see their doctors for a routine examination don’t run the risk of being sanctioned.
The President of the National Health Insurance House of Romania, Radu Tibichi, explains: ”At the moment, it is satisfactory that the law stipulates that every patient should see his or her family doctor, that it is compulsory for them to do so and to be included on a family doctor’s list of patients. Also, the frame-agreement establishes the patients’ right to benefit from these prophylactic treatments. Only when the national health insurance card is distributed at national level, will we be able to say, for certain, that a specific patient didn’t go to see his or her doctor to benefit from prophylactic examinations, as was scheduled. In the absence of a control system, it is not efficient, nor ethical to introduce sanctions now.”
Other novelties included in the new basic package are prophylactic medical services, the reimbursement of all costs entailed by therapies used to treat autistic children and certain dental treatments. Furthermore, patients will be guided mainly towards family doctors and polyclinics and less to hospitals. Subsequently, 300 diagnoses will no longer be treated in hospitals, which are usually overcrowded, but in polyclinics.
Doctors will also assess the risk of mental and reproduction health, respectively. Family doctors will also monitor some chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and bronchial asthma. Additionally, hepatitis B and C screenings have been introduced in the minimal monitoring package for pregnant women, alongside the usual HIV tests.
