End of the deadline for Bulgarian hospitals’ application for contract with NHIF

2010-01-27

Thirty two hospitals of those which met the deadline of 20 January to apply for a contract with the Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) for 2010, will have to revise their applications, according to the NHIF, due to omissions and imprecisions in the information submitted.
Under the 2010 Healthcare Framework, many hospitals in smaller towns will be allowed to offer a limited range of services, while 80,000-100,000 patients are expected to be re-directed to the major and university hospitals. As the latter had 10-15% free capacity in 2009, they are expected to be able to cope with a greater workload. The measures are aimed at optimising the NHIF's hospital budget, as many of the hospitals funded in 2009 operated significantly under their capacity. The new criteria of the NHIF for its contract partners include 24-hour care, at least two full-time doctors in each specialisation contracted for, and up-to-date medical equipment. An estimated 150 hospitals will be dropped from NHIF contracts due to the stricter criteria - by way of comparison, the NHIF had 420 hospital partners in 2009.