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Estonia · Bill · SE

922

Act on Amendments to the Health Insurance Act and the Health Services Organization Act (psychiatry referral, e-consultation and lay doctors)

saadetud i lugemiseleEstonia· Riigikogu· ET

Introduced

18 May 2026

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SAADETUD_I_LUGEMISELE

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Source updated

18 May 2026

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Summary

The draft creates a clearer and more unified legal basis for the use of e-consultation, establishes a requirement for a referral in the specialty of psychiatry, and specifies the basis for the operation of non-specialist doctors. The aim of the changes is to improve the availability of specialist care, make the use of health services more efficient and reduce the administrative burden and the number of unnecessary admissions. Expanding the possibilities of e-consultation supports cooperation between healthcare professionals and allows patients and referring doctors to receive feedback about the need for further treatment or a specialist appointment within a certain period of time. As an important change, going to the psychiatrist's appointment will be done on the basis of a referral. If until now a person could turn to a psychiatrist directly, in the future the patient's condition will first be assessed by a family doctor or a mental health nurse. The Health Insurance Fund pays for the appointment of a psychiatrist only if there is a referral letter. The change the aim is to direct psychiatric help more quickly to those patients who need it the most, and to reduce unjustified referrals to a specialist. In addition, the regulation of non-specialist doctors, i.e. general practitioners, will become more legal. If until now their role in the provision of health care services has been legally unclear and allowed for different interpretations, then according to the amendment, a non-specialist doctor cannot perform activities within the competence of a specialist doctor or can be given such tasks by the healthcare provider. A lay doctor can act only within the limits of his competence and acquired profession. Hospital reporting will also be simplified, as the obligation to submit separate budget data to the Ministry of Social Affairs will be removed - the necessary financial data is already available in the balance data of the Ministry of Finance. This helps reduce duplicative reporting and administrative burden.

Machine translation from Estonian. The official text remains authoritative.

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Documents

15 official files

Seletuskirja lisa 2 (kooskõlastustabel) pdf

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