MP Carole Hartmann from the Democratic Party (DP) recently filed a parliamentary enquiry concerned with the progress of the new reimbursement system offered by the National Health Fund (CNS).

According to Minister of Social Security Claude Haagen, only 39 doctors offered the accelerated reimbursement system to their patients at the beginning of the year, and the rate seems to be increasing slowly.

The new system works with QR codes on bills, which doctors can forward to the National Health Fund directly via an app, and which should allow the Fund to reimburse costs in faster manner.

However, between 23 September 2021 and 31 May 2022, only 0.11% of requests were transferred digitally. Minister Haagen has since announced that the process will be revised to determine why the rate of participating doctors has remained this low and how potential obstacles can be removed from the process.

The CNS has already accepted parts of the extra expenses to help encourage doctors adapt to the new system. The so-called 'accelerated reimbursement' is considered the first step towards a generalised system that will allow patients to only cover their part of the costs after an appointment. However, it is not yet known when the system will be fully implemented.

Once completed, patients will no longer have to advance the payments actually covered by the CNS. 2022 was initially thought to be the year of transition, but it seems as though matters are not moving ahead as fast as planned. At the moment, patients still have to wait up to six weeks for doctor's bills to be reimbursed.