The Czech Health Ministry prepared draft amendments to the Public Health Insurance Act, which will introduce new reimbursement rules for medical devices, the Ministry said.

The new rules are expected to come into force in January 2019, replacing current regulations that were contested by the Czech Constitutional Court in 2017 and will be made void as of 31 December 2018.

The amendments are aimed at enabling a flexible response to new products entering the market and changes in the price level in order to avoid an increase in costs for patients and the public health insurance system.

Under the new rules, new medical devices will be added to the reimbursement system each month and not just once every six months, as it is the case today. In addition, almost all devices and medical supplies, which are currently reimbursed at 75% of their price because they do not have their own reimbursement category, will be reimbursed in full under the changed system.

A transition period of around nine months will be introduced for the assignment of all products already available on the market into categorisation groups. The system will be revised on an annual basis by the medical devices categorisataion and reimbursement committee, which will be set up by the Health Ministry.