Almost 600,000 high-performance medical services in 2021 were covered with money from the mandatory health insurance funds, up over 200,000 on 2020. The rise is primarily due to the medical consequences sustained by patients who contracted COVID-19, IPN reports.

According to the National Health Insurance Company (CNAM), over 200 million lei was paid from the mandatory health insurance funds last year for such services, by over 50 million lei more than a year before.

Among the most popular high-performance services were computerized tomography scans, echocardiography and monitoring methods, genetic testing and others.

Over 15 million lei of the sum allocated in 2021 for high-performance medical services went for over 17,000 checkups for initiating antiviral treatment for viral chronic hepatitis and hepatic cirrhosis and for determining the liver damage area.

CNAM contracted 67 providers for offering high-performance services, with 41 of these being public health facilities.

The high-performance medical services are costly diagnostic and treatment services accessible without payment only to medically insured persons based on referral from a specialist or the family doctor.