The IT system of Bulgaria’s National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) is due for launch on July 1, Roumiana Todorova, director of the NHIF, said on May 14, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

The system will speed up data processing and the inter-linkage between individual modules will immediately detect overlap of medical activities and flawed spending of money. Spending control is likely to result in 10-15 per cent NHIF budget savings, Todorova said.

For this reason, all NHIF partners – doctors, hospitals and medical centres – will have to submit performance reports to the fund in digital format. Once it is launched, the system will undergo a trial period until the end of the year. As a back-up, the fund will continue to accept reports on paper.

Bul consortium, contracted to create the three-million-leva IT system, developed the system in a year and a half.

In related news, the NHIF has also started working on an e-medical database containing all health-insured persons. The fund, however, is yet to find financing for the project. The system will help patients to access their files and check whether they are being “treated” without their knowledge.