site.btaHealth Insurance Fund Director: "Fingerprint Identifier Did Not Save Any Costs"

Health Insurance Fund Director: "Fingerprint Identifier Did Not Save Any Costs"

Sofia, February 10 (BTA) - "The introduction of the fingerprint identifier as from November 1, 2016 did not help save any costs," National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) Director Glinka Komitov told journalists here on Friday, emerging from a meeting of caretaker Health Minister Ilko Semerdjiev with government officials and representatives of the National Association of Private Hospitals, the Centre for Protection of Health Care Rights and the Bulgarian Patient Forum Federation.

The meeting was prompted by a judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court which, acting on an appeal lodged by the three organizations, suspended the application of the fingerprint identifier as a method of registration of hospital admissions. The Ministry has to decide now whether to appeal the judgment before a five-judge panel of the same court, which will issue a final ruling.

Komitov said that the innovation did not have a negative effect, either, but hospitalizations did not decrease. In his words, too little time has passed since its introduction and arriving at a final conclusion on the need of such patient identification would take at least six months.

The NHIF Director noted that in 12 per cent of the cases, the patient's fingerprint identification has to be repeated because, for example, cancer patients' papillary ridges are changed by the chemotherapy they received. Attendants of child patients are not always the same, which, too, necessitates re-entry into the system, he said, listing its shortcomings.

The NHIF reserves judgment on whether the identifier should be kept or scrapped until the court's final pronouncement.

The representatives of the patients' organizations, of the National Association of Private Hospitals and the Centre for Protection of Health Care Rights agreed that the matter should await the final judgment of the court. All participants in the meeting argued that the introduction of this identification does not produce an economic benefit. According to the patients' organizations, the Council of Ministers can immediately revoke the ordinance introducing the identifier.

At a meeting with Semerdjiev on Thursday, the NHIF and the Bulgarian Medical Association categorically insisted that the fingerprint identifier is untenable in statutory, control and economic terms and that it was the main stumbling block to the 2016 National Framework Agreement. According to the latest figures published on the NHIF website, instead of cutting health care costs, the new identification system has increased them. In November alone, when the identifier was introduced, the NHIF expenditures surged by over 10 million leva.

Former Deputy Health Minister Vanyo Sharkov has argued that the fingerprint registration is a foolproof deterrent to fake hospitalizations designed to milk the NHIF. Sharkov said that the activity reported by hospitals for the first 15 days since the new system was launched had dropped by 14 million leva compared to the same period of the previous month.