Medical service providers returned 17.4 million hryvnias received in excess to the National Health Service of Ukraine
Medical service providers returned the overpaid UAH 17.4 million, and the National Health Service of Ukraine (hereinafter - NSZU) continues to work on establishing connections between the central database of the Electronic Health Care System (hereinafter - ESHS) with four of the information systems and state information resources specified by law. Connections with two more resources have already been established.
These are the current results of the implementation of recommendations provided based on the results of the performance audit on the topic of «US Direct Budget Support at the Beginning of Russia's Military Invasion of Ukraine: Preventing Collapse and Maintaining Stress Resilience of the Ukrainian Healthcare System».
As a reminder, US Direct Budget Support (DBS) funds accounted for 70.5% of the NHSU's expenses for medical services for January - April and June - July 2022 and reimbursed 92.2% of the expenses of medical service providers for the salaries of their own employees, made at the expense of the state medical guarantee program.
As part of the audit, the Accounting Chamber identified shortcomings in the validity of concluding contracts for the medical services package "Ensuring the preservation of human resources for the provision of medical care" with individual providers, as well as in the interaction of the Health Insurance System with six information systems and state information resources specified by law. It is recommended to eliminate the shortcomings.
In accordance with these recommendations, the NHSU informed the Accounting Chamber that as of December 31, 2024, medical service providers had returned UAH 14.6 million (75.3% of the total amount) of funds received in excess under this medical service package according to the Accounting Chamber's conclusion (a total of UAH 19.4 million should be returned). The NHSU transferred these funds to the State Budget of Ukraine.
In addition, at the end of 2024, the NHSU completed an internal audit regarding the presence of grounds for concluding contracts for the specified medical service package with other medical service providers that were not selected for examination by the Accounting Chamber (for the period from March 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022). According to the results of this audit, an additional overpayment of funds in the amount of UAH 46.8 million was established, of which UAH 2.8 million has already been returned.
The Accounting Chamber will continue to monitor the implementation of the recommendations and inform the public about their implementation.
For reference: the United States provided Ukraine with USD 1.7 billion in direct budget support (DBS) for healthcare, which is equivalent to UAH 49.7 billion. This support was intended to help the NHSU ensure the uninterrupted provision of basic service packages under the state health guarantee program. The funds could be used to reimburse the NHSU for payments made by it to medical service providers under the state health guarantee program packages from January 1, 2022 to July 31, 2022 (except for payments for May),namely to reimburse salary payments to employees of such providers.