The Health Ministry issued a new directive today to health funds and hospitals to significantly reduce bureacracy for kidney transplant patients. According to the instructions of Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, the patients will be exempted from having to get a commitment-to-pay form from the HMOs for each test and treatment. The billing and accounting procedures will be conducted directly between the HMO and the hospital without the insured's involvement.
According to the new procedure, the insured will have to apply to the HMO only once in the year following the transplant and once every quarter in the remainder of the five years after the transplant.