Estonia, Financial Services, Funds, Insurance, Markets and Companies, Medicine

The volume of family healthcare was 85 million euros and visits to a family doctor numbered 945,000, the Health Insurance Fund said.

The number of people who received specialist medical care was 694,000 and three million visits were made to specialist doctors. The fund paid 468 million euros for specialist medical care during the nine months.

Nursing services were provided to 15,000 people and the fund paid 24 million euros for such services. Day care was provided to 44,000 people and inpatient care to 102,000 people. The average duration of a hospital stay was 6.2 days.

The possibility of e-Consultation was used in 16 medical specialties and the number of e-consultations conducted was four times bigger than in the first nine months of 2016. During the period, 189,000 calls were made to the family physician's counseling line.

High-cost treatment cases costing over 65,000 euros per case were funded for altogether 6.4 million euros, two million euros more than in the same period a year ago.

Medicinal products distributed at a discount were compensated for on the basis of more than six million medical prescriptions and 92 million euros was spent for that, making for an average of 15 euros per prescription. The number of beneficiaries of the service was 779,000.

Treatment of insured Estonians abroad cost the fund 6.5 million euros, and altogether some 400 people received medical services paid for by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund abroad.

The allowance for incapacity for work was paid to 148,000 individuals and the total number of sick days was 4.6 million. The payout by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund per sick day was 23.5 euros and such payouts totaled 108 million euros.