The Program of Medical Guarantees covers only emergency dental care to all and planned dental care to children up to 18 years of age, except the orthodontist procedures and tooth replacement. These services are defined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as paid services, so they must be covered from the client’s private funds or at the cost of some local budget programs.
What you need to consider
Starting from April 1, 2021, dental healthcare is covered by the state-guaranteed benefits package “Dental care to adults and children”. To receive the services, the patient needs to select any health facility contracted by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) for the delivery of services included in this benefit package.
The scope of free dental services includes:
- Initial examination and dental health assessment;
- Emergency dental care to children and adults (acute toothache relief and treatment of life-threatening conditions);
- Planned dental care to children (besides orthodontist procedures and tooth replacement);
- Instrumental investigations in the framework of emergency dental care and planned dental care to children;
- Timely pain relief at all stages of diagnostics and treatment.
This means that the Program of Medical Guarantees covers emergency dental care for adults, including cute toothache relief and treatment of life-threatening conditions and planned pediatric dental care for children under 18 years of age.
- Prosthetic repair, brackets and other expensive dental services are not covered by the state-guaranteed benefit package. They can be covered from other sources – some local budget programs or at the cost of the patient.
For the full scope of services under this benefit package, please access the NHSU website and select the specification in the relevant benefits package.
How to find out if the health facility has signed a contract with the NHSU?
You can find this information here in Section “Signed contracts for providing healthcare services to population”. The facilities contracted by the NHSU are listed in the table.
Conduct of the patient if the healthcare provider solicits payment for medical care or refuses to provide the service.
- First of all, approach the chief physician of the healthcare facility, preferably with a written report (complaint), demanding to remedy the violation of right to free medical care under the relevant benefit package, referring to availability of public funding received by the healthcare facility for provision of such services. The complaint must be duly registered, with an incoming registration number assigned.
- If these efforts were not successful, you need to file a written report (complaint) to the oblast health department complaining about absence of response by the chief physician and demanding to remedy the violation of the right to healthcare. The healthcare department must duly register the complaint and respond to it. In fact, this is usually enough to correct the situation.
- If the client remains unsatisfied, he/she can approach the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) and submit a complaint using the online form on the NHSU website. If a healthcare provider unreasonably refuses to provide medical care or solicits payment for the services covered by the NHSU under the Program of Medical Guarantees, this is a breach of the contract between the National Health Service and the facility. Usually, NHSU does not ignore such messages and may take measures up to terminating public funding provided to the health facility. Therefore, the administrations of health facilities try to avoid such complaints and prevent conflicts.
- If the client remains unsatisfied, he/she can file a complaint in court.