As reported by the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Deputy Prime Minister Eraly Tugzhanov held a meeting at MoH to discuss the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State. The event was attended by the Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat, Vice Ministers of Healthcare, representatives of ASPIR (Agency for Strategic Planning and Development under the Presidential Administration, the Ministry of National Economy the Ministry of Finance, and subordinate organizations.
The meeting addressed the issues of modernizing rural healthcare, maternal and child health, centralization of the purchase of medical equipment and the work of national information systems in health care.
CEO of the Social Health Insurance Fund Aidyn Ashuev spoke about the current situation in social health insurance and the results achieved since the launch of the social health insurance system.
“So, with a two-fold increase in financing, expenses per 1 citizen increased from 56 to 116 thousand tenge, and, respectively, a decrease in out-of-pocket expenses by 6.2% is observed.
Additional financial resources that came into the health system since the launch of the health financing reform are directed to the previously underfunded services. For example, funding for high-technology medical services increased by 3 times, funding for rehabilitation, consultative and diagnostic care increased by 11 times,” said the CEO of the Social Health Insurance Fund.
At the same time, the number of medical service providers significantly increased to provide medical care, including the share of private health care organizations increasing from 27% to 51%.
In terms of the implementation of strategic tasks, A. Ashuev noted that out of 7 specific strategic indicators, the Fund does not achieve one indicator on the coverage of the population with the mandatory health insurance system. To help resolve this issue, it is proposed to ensure the interaction of local executive bodies with relevant state bodies.
The leader of the Health Insurance Fund raised the need to consolidate the financial flows of the guaranteed free benefits package and the insured person’s basked in order to sign uniform single contracts with health care provider organizations. “Today, the existence of two contracts for two different benefits packages leads to the involvement of health workers in the process of administering packages, and distracts them from patient care, which compromizes the quality of care. This is a highly complex and labor intense process, which leads to system errors when determining the right package in payment-related documents,” – summed up Mr Ashuev.
