Compulsory Medical Insurance Agency Transferred to Ministry - What Will Change?

As is known, the powers of the State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance have been transferred to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population (MLSPP). President Ilham Aliyev signed a Decree to this effect on March 19.

So, how will the management in the field of compulsory medical insurance be organized after the change? Considering that the chairman of the abolished agency was also the head of the TƏBİB Supervisory Board, how will this issue be regulated? Which powers will be transferred to TƏBİB?

“Qafqazinfo” reports that, by the Decree, a public legal entity, the State Medical Insurance and Expertise Agency, has been established under the ministry through the reorganization of the State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance (İTSDA) and the State Medical-Social Expertise and Rehabilitation Agency in the form of a merger.

The newly established agency will be responsible for the implementation of compulsory medical insurance in Azerbaijan, the centralization of funds in the compulsory medical insurance fund for financing medical services within the service package and the management of these funds, acting as the centralized purchaser of medical services on behalf of the state for compulsory medical insurance, and the payment of expenses. It will also operate in the fields of determining disability and the final medical examination of citizens called up for fixed-term actual military service.

The rights and obligations related to providing rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities, and rehabilitation institutions, along with all their property, are transferred to the newly established agency.

The State Medical Insurance and Expertise Agency will be managed by a Board of Directors consisting of 5 members (chairman and 4 deputies).

According to the Decree, the rights and obligations of the State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance related to providing insured persons with medicines and medical supplies have been transferred to the Management Union of Medical Territorial Units (TƏBİB).

It should be recalled that TƏBİB, established in 2018 within the State Agency for Compulsory Medical Insurance, has been operating as an independent state body since 2023. TƏBİB's governing bodies are the Supervisory Board and the Executive Director. Until now, the chairman of TƏBİB's Supervisory Board was Zaur Aliyev, the head of İTSDA. Currently, it is not known who will exercise this authority.