Representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic met at a round table with a wide range of stakeholders in the field of medical devices last week. The objective of the open debate was to exchange views on the current requirements of manufacturers regarding reimbursement and to find a way to maintain the availability of medical devices while respecting the financial opportunities of health insurance companies.
This round table was the first in a series of regular meetings where the Ministry is going to systematically address topical issues from this important segment. Joint efforts to prevent the emergence of critical situations such as those encountered in the past, for example, when due to insufficient reimbursements, several renowned manufacturers of locomotory devices threatened to leave essential for people with temporary or permanent physical disadvantages.
In addition to the manufacturers and distributors associated with the Slovak Association of Suppliers of Medical Devices SK+MED, representatives of a group of smaller Slovak and foreign manufacturers and importers of medical devices who are not members of SK+MED or all health insurance companies participated also doctors-specialists from relevant disciplines, Association for the Protection of Patients' Rights, InkoForum, Families Platform, Union of blind and sightless, Organization of muscular dystrophy, but also Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.
In a constructive debate, the subject of the market situation of incontinence and compression devices, orthesis, locomomotors and trolleys was raised. The initial arguments put forward by manufacturers show that the possibility of supplying the market with these medical devices is becoming at risk not only because of the current situation of raw materials, energy and logistics prices, but also because of the long-term non-adjusted reimbursements. The invited urologists justified the medical need and the established prediction rules for incontinence devices and proposed options for their modification. Representatives of individual patient organisations contributed to the views of users of medical devices and pointed out many practical problems in their real availability, which they regularly face. There were also concerns arising from the current adjustment of Law No 447/2008. This frames the resort's contribution options to a particular segment of medical devices.

The health insurance companies presented a detailed analysis of the use of public health insurance resources for the medical devices covered and pointed out that, in order to support the increase in reimbursements, the amount of public health insurance resources available for next year must first be known. At the same time, insurance companies were looking for a solution for the reimbursement of incontinence devices in the new financial model.
The meeting concluded with the statement that all parties, knowing the current situation, will make every effort to submit part of the proposals for adjustment of reimbursements so that they will have a chance of implementation from the new year to the next September Categorisation Commission of the SR for Medical Devices.