In mid-2021, more precisely on June 1, 2021, a new health insurance law will be introduced, while a public debate in the National Parliament on the draft containing amendments to this document is now underway.
For the first time, the document will stipulate the definition of rare diseases in legal regulations in Serbia (rare diseases are those diseases that affect fewer than 5 people per 10,000 inhabitants), pregnant women will be entitled to compensation due to their inability to work, regardless of whether their employer has paid health insurance contributions, patients will no longer have to show a sick leave note to their employers, and people will be allowed to choose their primary care physician online.
If this document were to be adopted, employers would no longer have to calculate wage compensation for workers who are temporarily incapacitated to work but the State Health Insurance Fund (RFZO), which now take over that role.
The public debate at the National Parliament began February 4 and will run through February 28 and representatives of state agencies, health institutions, experts, associations and other interested participants can attend it.
As stated in the explanations of the proposed solutions, there was a need for further improvement of the system of compulsory health insurance, which is reflected in the appropriate solutions regarding the exercise of the right to wage compensation due to temporary disability due to illness or accident in order to propose new solutions that facilitate the exercise of this right by the insured, as well as the employers themselves.
If the draft were to be adopted, pregnant women would also exercise all the rights and benefits of compulsory health insurance, regardless of whether their employers have paid health insurance contributions in full or not.
Article 17, which refers to sick leave notes issued by doctors, would have to be amended by law. That is, it was proposed that the insured person, or a member of his or her family, is not obligated to show the employer a sick leave note, rather their chosen physician should provide this information electronically to the employer.
(Mondo, 16.01.2021)
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