site.btaBulgarian Medical, Dental Associations Sign 2023-2025 Framework Agreements with National Health Insurance Fund

The Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) and the Bulgarian Dental Association (BDA) signed framework agreements for 2023-2025 with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). The ceremony took place on Friday at the Ministry of Health, and the document was re-signed Health Minister Hristo Hinkov.

“I hope this signing will be the last, because I intend to propose that the framework agreements be signed every year, as it was some time ago, since a budget is adopted every year,” Minister Hinkov said.

It was a long process, the last framework agreement lasted more than three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said BMA Chair Dr. Ivan Madzharov. “Instability in the country led to the budget being approved in mid-summer,” he explained, adding that in hospital care, as a result of the increase in the prices of clinical pathways, the budget for this year was previously spent. “I hope and support the Minister's initiative to move to a one-year framework agreement, because a three-year one freezes the system for a three-year period. I hope that next year we will negotiate a significant increase in the prices of clinical pathways,” said Madzharov.

BDA Chair Dr. Nikolay Sharkov also agreed that the framework agreement should be signed every year, as the conditions in their professions are dynamic. The current agreement for dental activities protects the rights of patients and dentists and provides more favorable working conditions, he added. “No new activities are planned, despite our insistence, but they require a real resource,” Dr. Sharkov added. “We will insist to the Ministry of Finance for a drastic increase in the budget to cover procedures for insured persons over the age of 18,” added Dr. Sharkov.