Major investment in country’s healthcare are counted on the fingers of one hand, especially in times of severe economic crisis and the more painful austerity measures. In these conditions to put a sign stop to a prospective hospital is a sacrilege. Moreover when it comes to a project, extending to 18 thousand square metres with 16 wards, 450 beds, emergency room and a hospital as a whole boasting with the latest modern equipment. It was expected to employ about 500 people after a colossal investment of 40 million BGN. This hospital is Sofiamed which, together with its adjacent medical center planned to meet the needs of patients from eastern metropolitan districts Druzhba, Mladost, Slatina, Izgrev Chervena Zvezda and Gorublyane. The hospital building in question is already built and will soon be ready to open, but will not be able to conclude an employment contract with the National Health Insurance Fund and thus its survival will be at stake.
The reason is that the Law on the NHIF budget for 2012 contains a discriminatory text that may be helpful for some other players. It states that a contract under paragraph 1 (withy the National Insurer) cannot be awarded to hospitals, which were first authorized under Article 47 of the Law on hospitals for less than one year from the date of applying for a contract with the regional branches of the health fund. In other words – for newcomers there is no option to work with the state fund.
Curiously enough, the Ministry of Healthcare have motivated the amendment, arguing that the new hospitals would aggravate NHIF budget. That is to say the least, untenable proposition for the simple reason that the NHIF works on the principle money follows the patient. That is, its budget is a constant, and moreover clinical pathways have the same price everywhere. The only variable is the option for health insured people to decide where to be treated. It still more incomprehensible why the this text continues to exist in the latest version of the budget before the second reading in Parliament, despite being rejected by a decision of Supervisory Board of the Health Insurance Fund of October 27.
Since there is no unmotivated editing, one can see an explanation for this improper decision at least in several directions. The most serious appears to be the hypothesis that the hospital was sabotaged by big public and private competitors. They rightly fear that the latter can lose some of their staff, now lured by high salaries and bonus scheme which will operate in Sofiyamed. Dr. Michael Teak owner intends to introduce incentive payment methodology whereby individual clinics and physicians and nurses will receive money based on the demand patients show for them.
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