A 51-billion-baht loan proposal has been approved by the National Health Security Office (NHSO) to help cover reimbursement claims for COVID-related services.
During an NHSO meeting headed by Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on February 7, the NHSO board agreed to secure a loan to help pay reimbursement claims filed from December 2021 to September 2022. The 51-billion-baht loan will be divided into two parts, with 34.52 billion baht set aside for the first phase running from December 2021 to February 2022. 16.53 billion baht will meanwhile be set aside for the second phase, which will run from March to September 2022.
The first phase will cover COVID-19 service costs, which are divided into two parts. The first will be calculated based on real payment expenses processed during the December-January period, while costs in February are calculated based on real expenses and the average number of patients since April 2021. A budget of 34.52 billion baht will be allocated for this part.
New numbers for COVID service expenses will be calculated for the loan’s second phase. The NHSO will set aside a budget of 9.69 billion baht for health promotion and COVID-19 prevention, 6.104 billion baht for patients’ medical expenses, and 732.64 million baht for vaccination and service compensation.
NHSO Secretary-General Jadej Thammatacharee explained that calculations for the second phase are based on estimates concerning the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The NHSO also approved reducing funds initially planned for reimbursement claims in order to alleviate the burden on the national budget. He added that cost adjustments were made for factors such as COVID testing and PPEs based on a seventh-month forecast, resulting in a reduction of more than 1.72 billion baht in budget requirements.(NNT)
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