Changes to Health Insurance Regulation in Serbia

Amendments to the Law on Health Insurance

The Law on Health Insurance (the “Law“), adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on 3 April 2019, regulates health insurance in the Republic of Serbia, which can be obligatory and voluntary.

But, the coming changes, planned for 1 June 2021, can be summarized as follows:

• a definition of rare diseases is introduced – these are those diseases that affect less than 5 people per 10,000 inhabitants;

This definition is the basis for the future introduction of the Register of Persons Suffering from Rare Diseases;

• in the case when the insured person is temporarily prevented from working for a long time due to illness or injury and when the conditions have been met to be referred to the disability commission for assessment of working capacity, the request is submitted electronically by the selected doctor;

• the calculation of salary compensation is no longer done by the employer, but by the Republic Health Insurance Fund, which has so far only performed control, based on data from paid taxes and contributions for the insured, which he received officially from the Tax Administration;

The Republic Fund shall pay that calculation as well as the salary compensation to the employer within 15 days;

• Insured persons are entitled to salary compensation in the event of temporary incapacity for work due to illness or complications related to the maintenance of pregnancy;

• It is proposed that the insured, i.e. a member of his family, does not submit a certificate of temporary incapacity for work to the employer, but that the selected doctor will submit this information electronically to the employer.

The new solutions, as well as the specification of the existing provisions, also attempt to complete the process of digitalization in the field of health in Serbia.