Amendments to the Law on Health Insurance

The new legislation related to Health Insurance was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia at the end of last month. In the following text, you can familiarize yourself with new legislative solutions and what they brought to the field of the obligatory health insurance.

1. Medical examination of the first-instance medical commission after 30 days

According to the earlier regulation, the chosen physician could determine a temporary disability to work up to 60 days. The new Law stipulates that the chosen physician determines the temporary disability to work up to 30 days, and after that a medical examination of the first-instance medical commission is necessary.

However, there is still a possibility for the chosen physician to determine the temporary disability to work up to 60 days, but only in prescribed cases such as malignant diseases, complications related to pregnancy maintenance, etc.

• The calculation of Salary Benefit

The new law stipulates that the Republic Health Insurance Institute calculates by itself the Salary Benefit provided from funds for compulsory health insurance contributions.

Namely, the employer submits to the Health Insurance Institute a request for the payment of Salary Benefit with the evidence required for payment.

Thereafter, Health Insurance Institute determines the amount of Salary Benefit and transfers the appropriate amount of funds to the Employer’s separate account within 21 days from the date of receipt of the Employer’s request for the payment.

The employer is obliged to pay the received funds to the employee no later than seven days from the date of their reception. If the payment is not made within the specified period, the employer is obliged to return the funds to the Health Insurance Institute.

In conclusion, with adopted changes, the matter of temporary inability to work is regulated more rationally and effectively, while aspiring to reduce the possibility of abuse, all with the goal to more economically allocation of assets in terms of obligatory health insurance.