Students, be alert if you receive an offer to change the treatment institution!

The State Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health (SHF) urges students to be vigilant and critically evaluate offers to enroll in medical institutions, whose representatives claim that when the health insurance funds compensate for the costs of certain services, students will be granted benefits - they will not have to attend physical education lectures. SHF distances itself from promotions in which students are invited to become clients of medical institutions and ensures that the costs of any special services that provide benefits at higher education institutions are not compensated.

The Lithuanian Students' Union approached the VLK, which outlined this problem in detail. According to the students, representatives of private medical institutions enter the auditoriums during lectures, offering young people various gifts and discounts in exchange for enrolling in their institutions, and providing false information about services paid for by health insurance funds from the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund budget.

Students are concerned that they are pretending to be lecturers, members of the student council, or representatives of the higher education institution's administration and claiming to have permission from the administration of the educational institution to attend lectures, dormitories, and require students to register with the medical institutions they represent. In addition, students are lied to, saying that those who re-enroll will be exempt from physical education classes and will be able to remain registered at two medical institutions.
It is claimed that a student enrolled in a new medical institution will have "double health insurance", meaning that in the new institution and the one in which he was enrolled according to his permanent place of residence, he will be provided not only with necessary medical care, but also with all other personal health care services. Students are falsely informed that only those enrolled in the new medical institution will be issued free medical certificates.
According to the VLK, many young people are tempted by such promises and fill out an application to become patients of a new medical institution. Problems begin when they have to contact doctors in case of illness. Students who apply to their former medical facility, they learn that they can only receive essential medical care there, because they are registered at another medical facility.

VLK advises students to be vigilant, critical, and responsibly check the information provided to them. A student is an adult who has a clear opinion and knows how to express it in a reasoned manner. Therefore, each young person should decide for themselves whether they need to change the medical institution where they can receive the necessary medical services.

According to the current procedure, those who wish to re-enroll at a former medical institution before six months have passed must pay a fee of 10 litas for processing the enrollment documents and forwarding the medical documentation to the chosen institution. However, persons who have come to receive treatment at an inpatient medical institution do not need to pay such a fee, therefore the 10 litas fee should not be charged from students.

Media contacts:

 Lina Bushinskaite

 State Health Insurance Funds under the Ministry of Health

 Head of Public Relations Department

 Tel. (8 5) 236 4105, mobile tel. 8 687 41445

 email post office lina.businskaite@vlk.lt

RAny questions can be submitted to the email address info@vlk.lt or by calling the health insurance information phone number 8 700 88888.