No Long Wait for State-Guaranteed Medical Care: Results of Changes Presented

Changes made to the framework of free medical assistance and services guaranteed by the state provide several advantages for both patients and the healthcare system. Previously, there was a contracted amount set by the state, and healthcare institutions operated within that budget to provide services. Now, however, there is no stipulated contractual sum for healthcare agencies. Instead, healthcare institutions will receive funding from the state for each citizen’s received services.

During a press conference hosted at the Armenpress press hall, the head of the State Health Agency of the Ministry of Health of Armenia, Aharon Barseghyan, stated that these new changes create an opportunity to eliminate the inconveniences in organizing medical assistance. “Previously, we had to regularly redistribute contractual funds to ensure equal distribution between healthcare institutions. Now, there is no need for such redistributions. We also have significant progress in organizing medical assistance without queues,” said Aharon Barseghyan.

The new changes have been in effect since the beginning of the year, and analyses from the past two months indicate positive outcomes in organizing medical assistance without queues. “Citizens receive a referral from the polyclinic, which is issued in electronic form. Electronic referrals are also accessible to hospitals. The citizen chooses the healthcare institution and approaches it, where medical assistance is organized. The analysis from the last two months shows that in over 90% of cases, the patient went and received medical assistance within a short period. In other words, there were no queues,” noted Aharon Barseghyan.

The specialist emphasized that citizens will no longer have to choose which healthcare institution has a remaining contractual amount. In this case, the restriction is removed, and the funding is transferred to whichever healthcare institution the patient visits. According to him, the pace of service provision is progressing significantly faster than the financial resources allocated by the state budget. This mainly pertains to outpatient conditions that involve challenging access to examinations. The officials do not assess this increase as critical, stating that everything is proceeding according to the previously planned scenario.

Aharon Barseghyan also noted that this new approach would promote increased competition among healthcare institutions. The main criterion for selection will be the quality of services provided by the healthcare institution.