Kontakt 2009, 11(2):381-386 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2009.059

Financing of the health care in institutions of social services providing accommodationHealth and Social Sciences

Ladislav Průša

Výzkumný ústav práce a sociálních věcí, Praha

Before the law on social services was issued, the largest long-term problems in providing accommodation by social services included the fact that health insurance companies (and particularly the General Health Insurance Company), controversially to the effective legal status, refused financing the nursing care to the sufficient extent and level in these institutions based on the public health insurance system and thus, this care was necessarily covered based on budget of particular institutions, which undoubtedly also affected the possibilities and quality of providing social services. The target of the contribution presented here is to acquaint the expert public with still existing knowledge, which is aimed at the quantification of costs of nursing care in institutions of social services providing accommodation and thus, to acquaint the givers of social services with possibilities of solving this question based on a short historical consideration of legal arrangements in this field. It is obvious that the largest failure of the existing solution is the chosen form of reimbursement for the nursing care provided through the mediation of the performance method, for the implementation of which many institutions are not sufficiently prepared. A further failure is that based on agreements concluded, health insurance companies provide the social care givers with a part of the healthcare granted only. A solution of the existing problems can be for example compilation of an educational project for healthcare professionals in institutions of social services, which could enable them to master knowledge making them equivalent partners for staff members of all the health insurance companies and making it possible to defend more successfully the requirements defined by the law.

Keywords: social services; health care; financing of social services; law on social services

Received: February 12, 2009; Accepted: June 24, 2009; Published: December 18, 2009  Show citation