site.btaBulgarian Medical Association Decides to Sign 2015 National Framework Agreement

Bulgarian Medical Association Decides to Sign 2015 National Framework Agreement


Sofia, December 20 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Medical Association
(BMA) will sign the 2015 National Framework Agreement. However,
BMA President Tsvetan Raychinov expressed doubts that the
Supervisory Board of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF)
would manage to meet by the year's end to adopt the document.

The BMA held its 62nd extraordinary assembly on Saturday.

The delegates voted 155-12, with four abstentions, mandating the
BMA leadership to sign the framework agreement. Raychinov said
the chapter on prices and volume of services would be signed
only if the BMA's demands were met.

The BMA wants the projected volumes in primary out-of-hospital
medical services to be close to this year's, which would result
in expenditures of 178 million leva as projected. The
organization also wants higher prices to be set for the
monitoring of insured persons with one or with more than one
diagnosis, and for regular check-ups of persons aged over 18,
which would result in an increase in the price of services by
about 4,975,000 leva.

As to specialized out-of-hospital medical services, the
projected volumes should be close to this year's performance,
resulting in expenditures of 190 million leva. With an increase
in the price of primary checkups from 18 leva to 19 leva, the
overall price of services would increase by 6,930,000 leva.

The price of all X-ray tests should increase by 5 per cent. The
BMA also insists that the prices of all clinical pathways for
infectious diseases should increase by 10 per cent.

Health Minister Peter Moskov, who attended the forum, said his
Ministry backed most of the BMA's demands and positions on the
NHIF budget for 2015.

He told journalists that in 2015, the hospitals would get 95 per
cent of the financing for the activities they invoiced in 2014,
which he said was a year notable for serious overspending and
complete lack of control.