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Disabled patients are able to get the assistive devices they need in just 2 days after the decision of the TELK committee, thanks to the electronic system for requesting and dispensing medical devices developed by Information Services. This was said by Georgi Nedev, Head of Health Insurance Systems at the company. The computerisation of the process has reduced the waiting period by an impressive 20 times compared to the period before 1 July 2022, when the platform was put into operation. Back then, claiming and disbursing assistive devices took an average of about 40 days, and disabled people, many of whom are hardly mobile, had to go around to institutions for approval and reporting on invoices for the received devices. Patients had to pay for the medical devices out of their own pockets and wait several weeks for reimbursement.
Once the system is operational, all claims are submitted electronically to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), reviewed by committees and approved electronically. This enables patients with disabilities to go immediately to one of the 348 outlets that work with the NHIF and get the assistive devices they need without payment. The platform also provides functionalities for outlets that offer medical devices, with all documentation and payment going through electronically without the need for patient involvement or exchange of paper documents.
"The digitalisation of the process of requesting and dispensing assistive devices significantly relieves disabled people, who are among the most vulnerable part of the population, saving them considerable money, inconvenience and time," said Georgi Nedev. In his words, through the electronic system disabled patients have received assistive devices for over 90 million levs. In the last 18 months, over 200 000 applications from 143 thousand people have been processed. A total of more than 400,000 assistive devices, appliances, equipment and medical devices (ADAEMDs) have been provided.
In order to make it easier for people using assistive devices, from 1 September 2024 NHIF sends real-time notification via SMS or Viber to patients when their applications are approved or denied. So far, the system has sent over 35,000 notifications.