Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan told reporters that in the past, co-pay was used for tumor surgeries, and the medical centers where such surgeries took place would end up paying a very small portion, leaving the burden of the rest of the payment on the patient. According to the minister, it was illogical to consider such surgeries to be part of government coverage. Therefore, the ministry decided that it will compensate all oncological surgeries in full and will not ask for co-pay from patients.
Torosyan said, “This year, we have had a 700 million AMD growth in oncology services, which was added to last year’s 1.1 billion. A decision needed to be made as far as what we would be spending that money on. As a result of discussions, we came to the conclusion that we needed to try and ease some of the burdens placed on citizens via co-payment. It has been decided that the majority of that 700 million AMD will be spent on getting rid of that co-pay. So now, if someone is in need of an oncology surgery, the medical centers that have the option for state coverage will not require payment from citizens, and instead the state will compensate for that surgery in full and at market price. This is important because we have similar services when we refer to state coverage, but the payment for such services is less than the market price, and medical centers always have different expectations. Now there will be no other expectations, and prices will be higher than production price.”
The minister assured, “Radiation therapy will also be added to treatment of tumors, which has not been available until now. There has only been radiation therapy through using gamma rays, which was made available for 200 citizens. Every stage of radiation therapy costs more than 1 million AMD, which will be done this year for the first time within the framework of governmental coverage.”
Nelly Babayan
