site.btaNational Health Insurance Fund Owes Lv 133 Mln-Plus Arrears to Foreign Health Insurance Funds

Sofia, February 23 (BTA) - The Supervisory Board of Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) Friday published information, requested by the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) and the Finance Ministry, according to which the NHIF owes health funds in 32 countries 271,200,475 leva, of which 133,404,340 leva are overdue. The largest amount owed for treatment of Bulgarians abroad is 128 million leva, in Germany.

Until the end of this year, the NHIF has to pay foreign health funds 73,448,844 leva excluding interest.

The figures were released after Deputy Health Minister Zheni Nacheva, who chairs the NHIF Supervisory Board, told a hearing of the parliamentary Healthcare Committee on February 21 that the overdue reimbursements to foreign health insurance funds were 7.6 million leva by January 31, 2018. No payments were overdue by December 31, 2017, she said. "Given that it is February and that 73 million leva have been allocated for payments to foreign health insurance funds this year, there is no problem with payments for medical treatment at this stage," Nacheva argued.

Last week Health Minister Kiril Ananiev demanded the resignation of NHIF Director Kamen Plochev after the latter asked the National Assembly to increase the NHIF budget by 140 million leva over the head of the Fund's Supervisory Board. The money was needed to pay 271 million leva that the NHIF owed in early 2018 for treatment of Bulgarian citizens in the EU, of which 207 million leva were overdue, Plochev specified.

Because of the discrepancies in the figures, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov Thursday called on the BMA to defer the signing of the 2018 National Framework Agreement until the situation is sorted out.