Vladimir Zelensky, First Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation, spoke at the All-Russian Congress of Patients outlining what he believes to be the most important innovations of the government medical benefits scheme for 2023, Vademecum reports. The budget of the Federal CHI Fund for the next year, approved by the State Duma, is almost 290 billion rubles higher. It is primarily aimed at the development of the primary care sector, which is necessary to reduce the excessive costs for inpatient medical care in the projection, the official said.
“Zelensky described primary medical care as the Ministry of Health’s “number one priority” for 2023, since it is this part of the healthcare system that forms the attitude of patients to the industry, which was the reason why the share of expenses for the prevention and follow-up care, as well as the provision of primary health care, has been increased in the CHI budget. This segment accounted for 1 trn rubles out of the 3.2 trn rubles provided in the budget,” the newspaper writes.
In addition to the indexation of the per capita standard, the changes include a higher amount allocated for medical care related to IVF, medical rehabilitation, and neonatal screening. In order to stimulate regular preventive medical examinations, it was decided to withdraw the payment from per capita financing system and start paying for a unit of medical assistance. As Vladimir Zelensky is sure, it is the prevention of diseases and their complications that will alleviate the burden on the limited CHI budget strained due to excessive amounts of hospital care.
The Ministry of Health wants to promote the development of another direction – the system of awarding primary health care organizations introduced this year for meeting the targets of disease detection and follow-up monitoring. According to Zelensky, the pay for performance scheme is very popular in the world and plays an important role, and the regions need additional support in the implementation of the scheme, since “fitting everyone into a single per capita standard” would, in his opinion, be “wrong”. The bonus system promotes personalized approach to each patient, said the first deputy minister.
“The Ministry of Health attaches great importance to the construction of digital services, including on the basis of data from the unified register of insured persons, which is officially launched on December 1. The data set will improve the processes of booking a medical appointment and of registration with a polyclinic. Another plan for 2023 and the subsequent years is to develop services to support regular follow-up checks system for patients and doctors,” Vademecum notes.
The expenses of the CHI fund for medical support in 2022 increased to 500 billion rubles, as it became known earlier.