The setting up of the Health Technology Assessment agency will be beneficial for health care in terms of controlling public finances. TASR was informed of this by the spokeswoman for the Health Ministry Zuzana Eliasova in response to a call by opposition Voice MP Richard Rasi on President Zuzana Caputova not to sign the law enabling the establishment of this agency in Slovakia. According to the spokesperson, the institute will publish analyses based on the principles of evidence-based medicine and using an international methodological standard. "Independent evaluation of health technologies is a standard in Western Europe, and the setting up of the institute was already part of the recommendations in the 2019 health expenditure review, prepared by the Value for Money unit during the previous government of which the MP was a member," pointed out Eliasova. The new HTA agency is due to be operational from 2022. It is to be entrusted with advisory tasks related to the evaluation of health technologies that are to be financed from public health insurance. It is intended to address those with a budgetary impact exceeding €1.5 million per year. It will be set up on the basis of a law prepared by the Health Ministry, which was approved by MPs on Wednesday (September 22).
Source: TASR
