25 January 2021 12:05

The Rules for issuing referral letters for the provision of medical services have been approved

By the relevant decision of the Board of the State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance (Agency), the "Rules of issuing a referral letter for the provision of medical service (s) under the mandatory health insurance" were approved. The rules set out the conditions for issuing a referral letter for the provision of medical services to health facilities subordinated to the Administration of the Regional Medical Divisions as well as to private medical facilities. Referral letter is a written instruction issued by the health facility which is not able to provide the necessary medical services to insured persons and directed to another health facility which is able to provide these services.

The referral letter may be issued to medical facilities (public or private medical facilities) which have signed a contract with the Agency for the provision of medical services.

According to the rules, a citizen can be given two types of referrals on the basis of medical indication:

• Referral letter issued for a specialized medical examination and auxiliary diagnostic examinations

• Referral letter issued for inpatient care.

A referral letter to a public medical facility for a specialized medical examination and auxiliary diagnostic examinations is issued by the primary health care service (family doctor, field therapist, field pediatrician). A specialist doctor in turn, may issue a referral to insured person to pass medical examination and auxiliary diagnostic examinations by another specialist doctor, when medical prescription. An extract from the outpatient record book, the results of examinations and, if necessary, other medical documents are attached to the referral letter.

A referral letter to a public medical facility for the provision of inpatient medical care is issued by the primary health care service and a specialist doctor. If it is not possible to provide inpatient medical services in public medical facilities, a referral letter is issued to a private medical facility in accordance with the requirements of the relevant sections of the Rules.

The insured must apply to the registration department of the health facility to which the referral was issued, along with the identity card and the referral letter issued to him. The validity period of the referral letter is 10 days.

More details about issuance procedure of a referral letter can be found here.