Dear Visitors,

You have been visiting the Website of the State Patients’ Fund at the Ministry of Health, Republic of Lithuania.

We would like to attract your attention to the fact that Lithuanian legislation provides for exclusively public management of the health care system legitimated by the Law on Health Insurance of the Republic of Lithuania (RL) (open). To this end, in pursuance with provisions of the Law on Health Care System (open) different institutions have been established to take care of different parts of the aforementioned system: physicians are prepared by Universities, property (buildings and facilities) are owned by municipalities and counties and the State Patients’ Fund has been established to manage the funds.

Patients Funds are independent from the founders of health care institutions (such as the Ministry of Health, counties, municipalities, etc.), which, bearing the responsibility for the health care of local population, are also responsible for the institutions and personnel working therein. Whereas the patients’ funds are responsible for provision of proper medical services to residents and implementation of the Health Policy set by the Seimas, Government and Ministry of Health. Since the Patients’ Funds have been established, one of the most important steps has been made striving for more effective management of the system: functions by the founder and manager of subsidies have been separated, and after the reorganization of health care institutions to public ones, a system of independent contracts has actually been developed.

Similar to other institutions, the Patients’ Funds have their own strategy based on the vision of overall activities. The essence of such vision is a healthy person. The mission is understood as an obligation to manage funds allocated by the State striving to their effective use, i.e. to provide more and higher quality services for the same amount of money.

Activities of the State Patients’ Fund at the Ministry of Health are based on provisions of the Law on Health Insurance, laws in regulation of the State budgetary institutions and regulations approved by the Ministry of Health.

The goal of the State Patients’ Fund is to implement the budget of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, annually approved by the Seimas of Lithuanian Republic. Main sources of income for the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund’s budget are the following: contributions by the insured to the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund and also contributions paid for them, contributions for the insured payable from the State budget, operational income by institutions engaged in compulsory health insurance activities, subsidies from the State budget as well as voluntary contributions by legal and natural persons. The cost plan for the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund’s budget is implemented by making contracts between the Territorial Patients’ Funds and providers of services.

The State Patients’ Fund at the Ministry of Health coordinates the activities of five territorial patients’ funds. The main function of the latter is to cover in full or in part for personal health care services provided to Lithuanian residents, allowing each patient to choose freely a health care institution, and compensate the cost of medicines prescribed to a patient. The health care institutions failing to make contracts with the Patients’ Fund are not entitled to the resources of the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund budget, and patients receiving medical services there have to pay for themselves.

Defending the interests of persons, so that the primary medical aid would be guaranteed to every Lithuanian resident, that every taxpayer and State-supported person would receive the services and get the prescribed medicines, which the State is currently capable to finance, is an important task for the Patients’ Fund.