Romanian Public Healthcare Units To Outsource Dialysis Services – Draft

Romania’s Health Ministry and the National Health Insurance House submitted Friday for public debate the draft Government Decision on the outsourcing of dialysis services in public healthcare units. The draft is under public debate until March 15.

 

Chronic kidney disease is a major public healthcare problem because it affects 10% of the general population and may lead to the need for dialyses. In Romania, over 7,000 patients depend on these services to survive.

 

The country has 72 dialysis centers and costs for this type of treatment exceed EUR100 million annually, and the quality of these patients’ lives depends on treatment conditions, the motivation of the draft reads.

 

Most dialysis centers in Romania are overcrowded and use obsolete equipment. No new centers were open in the past seven years, although the number of patients has increased 5-10% each year.

 

The draft’s initiators consider that the outsourcing of dialysis services will ease patients’ access to such services and will also favor free competition.

 

The outsourcing process and the minimum mandatory criteria to be stipulated in the attribution documents will be regulated in a joint Order of the minister of public health and the National Health Insurance House within 30 days of the publication of the government decision in the Official gazette, with the approval of the Nephrology Committee in the ministry of Health.

 

The legal entity taking over the dialysis centers will sign a four-year frame agreement with the public healthcare unit.

 

The Health Ministry will coordinate and monitor hospitals undergoing such outsourcing procedures. The ministry will also create a commission to evaluate dialysis units.

 

The value of the outsourcing contracts will be paid from the budget of the Single National Fund for Social Health Insurance.