Electronic application forms will be obligatory for medical examinations at all health care facilities from July 2026, and will be trialled from the beginning of next year, Health Minister Vlastimil Valek (TOP 09) said on Czech Television yesterday.
He said CZK 30 to 35 billion a year could be saved on repeated examinations thanks to the electronic application forms.
This year, the public health insurance system is managing a total of CZK 504.6 billion. Insurance companies had expected a deficit of CZK 10 billion between costs and revenues, but the deficit will probably be between CZK 3 and 6 billion, Valek said.
According to a survey commissioned for Czech Television, the public consider waiting times for examinations and operations to be the biggest problem of health care in the Czech Republic, and three out of five said the waiting times were bad.
“The problem is that we don’t measure [waiting times]. Even health insurance companies don’t know,” former health minister Adam Vojtech (ANO) said on the same discussion program.
He added that monitoring of waiting times was in the programme of the current government of Spolu, and the Mayors and Independents (STAN), and that this pledge had not been met.
STAN MP Michaela Stebelova said the government fulfilled this promise as it introduced electronic application forms by law. Valek said the electronic application was the only way to monitor waiting times.
Vojtech said the electronic forms make sense only if they are obligatory for all health care facilities.
The Czech Institution of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS) estimated that if electronic application forms prevented repeated examinations, up to CZK 50 billion could be saved a year, though Valek said that his estimate was lower, CZK 30 to 35 billion.
The public health insurance system is in need of extra money, as for the last three years it has spent more on expenditures than it has collected in insurance fees and payments for those whose insurance is covered by the state. Insurance companies are thus drawing on their previous reserves.
“Realistically, the system is heading towards reserve depletion and insolvency,” Vojtech noted.
MP Iveta Stefanova (SPD) said the state should spend more money on health insurance on behalf of children, pensioners and the unemployed. “Because costs will eventually rise. The number of people who need care increases, and there are fewer active (health insurance) payers,” she said.
This year, the Czech state paid CZK 155 billion for the health insurance of those groups.
