20 April 2023 14:40

The Agency launches a pilot project to ensure transparency and efficiency in disability assessment

A visit to the Regional Central Hospital in Guba (Guba RCH) was organized on April 20, 2023, under the disability assessment project launched by the State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance. The purpose of the visit was to explain to the media staff and representatives of the National Medical Insurance Fund of the Republic of Lithuania (twinning project) the visual inspection procedure for disability assessment. The visitors were familiarized with the conditions in the medical facility and the work done there.

Hikmat Ibrahimli, the head of the Agency's Medical Planning Department, said that the Agency is taking appropriate measures to ensure transparency, fairness, and efficiency in the field of disability assessment: "The next step is the implementation of the pilot project. The main goal of the project is to improve the work of the Medical Advisory Commissions in healthcare facilities, to increase the quality of the provided medical services, and to ensure citizen satisfaction. The implementation of the project was initially started in Guba RCH. The duty of the Medical Advisory Commission is to monitor the accuracy of the medical documents of applicants and disability assessment documents issued by the doctor, as well as the accuracy of the established diagnoses, in order to check compliance with the disability assessment criteria approved by Cabinet of Ministers in 2022”.

According to Aliyar Sarvarov, the director of Guba RCH, the hospital has appropriate rooms for the admission and visual medical examination of citizens by MAC: "The examination rooms are equipped with all the necessary equipment: electrocardiography, echocardiography, bronchoscopy, portable X-ray, and ultrasound examination. Weekly reception days have been set for Guba and Gusar residents in connection with disability issues. Here, applications from 70–100 citizens are considered each week; existing documents are reviewed, citizens are examined, and after the relevant decision is made, the collected documents are forwarded to the State Medical & Social Examination and Rehabilitation Agency under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population.”

It was noted that as part of the project, monitors were installed in Guba RCH for the convenience of citizens and access to information. The monitors display information about the newly approved disability assessment criteria and the list of necessary examinations according to the relevant criteria. Here, if there is an incomplete or inaccurate diagnosis, it is possible to have a second examination by a doctor. As a result, the citizen does not apply to another hospital for additional medical examination, which prevents loss of time.

It should be noted that, depending on the results of the pilot project, it is planned to continue the implementation of the project in the centralized hospitals of other regions of the country for disability assessment issues.