There will be additional money for district hospitals

As the minister said at the press conference, this is another step to strengthen the financial condition of Polish hospitals, which are suffering, among other things, from high inflation. - We are systematically preparing instruments and solutions to improve the financial situation of Polish hospitals. I would like to inform you, first of all, about the increase in funding for district hospitals, as we want to respond to local needs related to access to treatment and diagnostics, including advanced treatment. We have decided to introduce a solution to help those hospitals that have not performed the lump sum. We are introducing this, bearing in mind that the execution of the lump sum was difficult in previous years. So we are giving this possibility so that the lump sum will not be reduced for those hospitals that have not performed it," the health ministry head stressed.

Filip Nowak, president of the National Health Service, recalled that due to the pandemic, many hospitals were unable to fulfill the lump sum not only in 2020-2021, but also in 2022. This ran the risk of resulting in a contract reduction in 2023. At the other extreme, there were facilities that had already been actively involved in reducing health debt in 2022 and had more than fulfilled the lump sum by admitting significantly more patients. - We have decided to compensate hospitals that have significantly exceeded the lump sum. We will act in three stages. Last year, hospitals that exceeded the lump sum received a portion of the funds, or 60 percent of the overperformance for 11 months, which raised the previous year's lump sum. Thanks to this move, the starting lump sum this year was higher by the amount of the increase last year. Today we are dealing with the third stage: hospitals that did not perform the lump sum last year have freed up a certain amount of money, by which the lump sums of facilities performing services at a high rate last year will be increased, Filip Nowak described.

Hospitals that have not performed lump sums have "freed up a certain amount of money," but this does not mean that they will be left without support. - The minister signed a decree on general contractual conditions, which allows a stream of financial assistance of PLN 700 million to be directed to these hospitals, Nowak said. This is to provide facilities with a reduced lump sum this year with guaranteed funding - if they perform the number of services provided last year.

The NFZ president also announced that PLN 100 million would be allocated for "quality coefficients dedicated to facilities that have won the MZ certificate." - The ministry has also included facilities just in the process of obtaining the certificate, he stressed. On the other hand, as of January 1, new tariffs came into effect in many groups of internal medicine services, which will raise the value of contracts by about PLN 500 million - the money hospitals will receive retroactively for months from the beginning of the year. The health minister announced that this is only the first step, as hospitals will soon learn about new valuations of services in connection with new minimum salary thresholds, which will take effect on July 1.