The National Health Insurance Company (CNAM) says it ensures broad transparency in the management of mandatory health insurance funds. This comes in reaction to concerns expressed by the National Confederation of Employers in an open letter about the distribution of health care contracts.

According to the CNAM, by issuing the letter, the Confederation actually “seeks to protect the interests” of a certain member which controls a number of companies that have received CNAM contracts over the years. However, says the CNAM, the Confederation “fails to take into account the legitimate interests of other public and private health care providers”.

“In 2023, around 294 million lei has been budgeted for high-performance health care services (SIP), an increase of over 34 million from last year. The bids submitted to the CNAM for contracting SIP exceeded the amount available in the mandatory health insurance funds dozens of times, and during discussions, several providers communicated their willingness to offer lower prices, a fact which, considering the existence of an oversupply, was accepted by the CNAM”, the Company said.

It added that, following negotiations with the providers, reasonable rates were established for the SIP, a fact that allowed the contracting of a higher volume of medical tests compared to previous years.

In its letter issued on Thursday, the Confederation alleged that some private providers saw their contracts cut “without plausible and evidential reasons”, complaining that “the lack of genuine negotiations (…) forced companies to accept rates below cost price”.