Interregional Cooperation
for a trans-European Electronic Health Cards Strategy

INCO-HEALTH Partners

National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary – OEP
XIII Váci út 73/A.
1139 – Budapest
Hungary

www.oep.hu

Contacts:
Gyula Kiràly
kiraly.gy@oep.hu

Zoltàn Szege
szege.z@oep.hu

Orsolya Szincsak
szincsak.o@oep.hu

The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is a separate administrative organisation under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. The NHIF directs the administrative functions of the insurance branch and controls the calculation and payment of benefits.

Administrative organisations of the National Health Insurance Fund are the Budapest Metropolitan and Country Health Insurance Directorates, the National Medical Experts Institution, the Railway Social Security Directorate and the Journalist Division. The Fund is led by a Director General, who is in his person responsible for the administration of the central and regional offices. The post of Director General is proposed by the Minister of Health and appointed by the Government.

The tasks of National Health Insurance Fund are the follows:

• Purchasing health care services for the insured.

• Directing the regional and other administrative bodies.

• Operating the health insurance branch system.

• Getting involved in preparation of legislation.

• Preparing and implementing the interstate agreements regarding health insurance.

• Developing and operating the data base of the health insurance system.

• Collecting, processing and analysing the statistical data of the health insurance system.

The health care system in Hungary is regulated and controlled by the Ministry of Health whose responsibilities are supervising the providers, preparing the legal framework for health care and representing Hungary’s health care interests on international level. The Ministry of Health has no longer direct responsibility concerning financing health care services, except high-cost diagnostic procedures, organ transplants and blood supplies.

The Ministry of Finance bears responsibility for fiscal policy and budget planning as well as for the macro-economic implications of health care financing.

Hungary’s Health Insurance Fund is a separated monetary fund within the State Budget. The budget of this fund is approved by the Parliament usually for one calendar year.

The National Health Insurance Fund finances the recurrent costs in the framework of contracts with health care providers. The investment and development costs of the health care institutions do not burden the budget of the Health Insurance Fund. Accordingly, their costs are covered by the owners of the institutions or by the state. In Hungary approximately 98 % of the health institutions are owned by the local governments.