The big challenge for the HIO is to manage, on the one hand, to operate all the necessary mechanisms to serve patients without problems, when they really need it, and on the other hand, to achieve their implementation in a way that does not incur unnecessary expenses for the GHS fund.

The financial aspect of these two programs is also included in the latest actuarial feasibility study of the GHS, as the expenditure for their implementation, as the actuaries concluded, will lead to a temporary, two-year reduction of the System's Fund reserves.

Greater of the two challenges is considered to be the integration of patient sending services abroad, since for the implementation of this program, the HIO must create all the necessary mechanisms that will operate both for the examination and approval of patients' and doctors' requests, as well as for the implementation of contracts that the Organization must conclude with medical centers abroad.

Of course, the way in which the HIO will act when emergencies arise and when a person's life depends on the speed with which the competent officers of the Organization will operate in such cases is considered a huge bet.

The procedures, as we are informed, for the integration of the program into the GHS are not at an advanced stage, since no final date has yet been set for the transfer of this service to the GHS. However, it is a given that this will happen in the first quarter of 2025.

In order to promote and complete the necessary preparation, the contribution of the Ministry of Health, which has been implementing this program with great success for several years and has all the necessary mechanisms and know-how, is imperative. As we are informed, several meetings have taken place between the HIO and the Ministry to date, but no substantial progress has been achieved to date.

As far as specialized medicines are concerned, the challenge for the HIO is twofold, while the procedures for the transfer of the program to the GHS have been completed and its implementation in practice is now expected.

In recent months, the Organization has been in a race to include as many treatments as possible in the GHS Lists of Medicines, with the aim of eliminating the suffering of patients and doctors who until now were obliged, in some cases repeatedly, to submit requests to the competent Committee of the Ministry of Health.

The largest volume of medicines has already been included in the System and is administered on the basis of protocols that have also been prepared, but the process will be continuous and the approval of new treatments is uninterrupted at international and European level.

Therefore, the HIO must be constantly vigilant in order to secure new medicines that receive approvals and to complete, without too much delay, the negotiation process with pharmaceutical companies, achieving the best possible prices.

In addition, the HIO had an obligation to set up two new committees. The Committee for the Examination of Nominal Requests for Medicinal Products and the Committee for the Examination of Emergency Cases. In the first Committee, doctors' requests for the administration of specialized/innovative treatments to their specific patients will now be submitted. The procedure to be followed will be the same as the procedure that was in force until now in the corresponding committee of the Ministry of Health.

Here, too, the Agency's reflexes will be tested in the way the second Commission, the one responsible for emergencies, operates. This committee will be addressed by doctors in cases where their patients urgently need specific medicines and without room for delay. The speed with which the mechanism already set up by the HIO will operate will essentially determine the success of the programme.

A game changer for personal doctors

The requirements of the Health Insurance Organization for the training of personal doctors of the General Health System are growing, but the amounts that doctors will receive are also increasing, depending on their performance in the relevant quality criteria.

The HIO informed the personal doctors about this, giving all the necessary details about the changes that it has made and will be implemented from January 1st.

Specifically, in 2025, in order to receive, as compensation, the amount corresponding to the criterion concerning their participation in training seminars/conferences of professional education, they must secure 20 points/units of continuing education instead of 10 points/units that they had to receive based on what is currently in force.

By doubling the required units, the amount of compensation is doubled, from €400 to €800.

"The 20 credits can be obtained by participating in seminars/trainings organized by the HIO, or conducted in Cyprus and awarded by the Pancyprian Medical Association, or by conferences/scientific events awarded by the Panhellenic Medical Association and recognized by the PIS or by conferences by medical associations of EU member states, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the USA, European and international scientific societies whose training credits are recognized by the PIS".

Changes were also decided on the qualitative criterion concerning the obligation of personal doctors to present a medical case to their colleagues for scientific analysis and data recording purposes. According to the HIO, personal doctors must present two cases during the year and the amount they will receive increases from €130 to €260.

The amendments to the quality criteria, as the HIO points out, "were deemed necessary after the evaluation of the existing procedure during the first year of their implementation and after taking into account the suggestions and comments of the doctors themselves".

It is recalled that the performance of personal doctors in the qualitative criteria and indicators applied by the HIO is taken into account in the calculation of their annual earnings.