120 members of the Seimas voted for such amendments after they were presented on Tuesday, one abstained. Next, the project will be considered by the Seimas committees, and it will return to the plenary session hall in October.
President G. Nausėda takes the position that after the expansion of the Compensation Commission for the treatment of very rare human health conditions, a more objective decision would be made in assessing the situation of each patient, instead of being guided by “accounting motives”.
According to him, a more objective evaluation would be ensured by the fact that the commission would include doctors dealing with very rare diseases, a representative of the patient’s organization, as well as the doctor treating the patient. He would also be given the right to appeal directly to the commission.
The amendments would add two physicians working in university hospitals and having special knowledge in the treatment of very rare and serious diseases or in related fields to the Commission for Reimbursement of the Costs of Treatment of Very Rare Human Health Conditions. It would also include one representative of patient organizations and one patient doctor each.
These changes would increase the number of commissioners from the current five to nine.
Also, the draft law proposes to provide an opportunity for the health care specialist treating the patient to apply to the Commission for reimbursement of treatment costs. Currently, this option is only available to medical institutions.
In addition, it is proposed to determine what constitutes an “urgent case” at the level of law, rather than by-law, as is currently the case. The presidency announced that with such changes, the president proposes to legally define “urgent case” and thus make it possible to speed up the process when the patient’s life is in real danger due to a progressive disease, even though effective treatment options even exist, but have been approved in other countries.
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