The Health Insurance Organization (HIO) was established by virtue of Law No 89(I) 2001 as a public legal entity and is responsible for the implementation and administration of the General Healthcare System (GHS) in Cyprus. It is governed by a Board of Directors which consists of representatives of all stakeholders such as the government, employers, employees and the patients.

The vision of the HIO is to ensure that each citizen in Cyprus has lifelong and equal access to high quality healthcare. As such, it is HIO’s mission to implement a patient centric healthcare system which is based on social solidarity and achieves universal coverage of the population, equal treatment of all beneficiaries, provision of a comprehensive package of healthcare services and freedom of choice of provider by beneficiaries.

In order to achieve the above, HIO contracts with providers of both the private and the public sector. These healthcare providers include:

• Personal Doctors
• Outpatient Specialists
• Laboratories
• Pharmacies
• Nurses and midwives
• Allied health professionals
• Inpatient Healthcare Services
• Dentists
• Palliative, Rehabilitation and Home Care
• Ambulance services
• Accident and Emergency Departments

The GHS is funded via a special Fund which was established for the purposes of collecting contributions, copayments as well as income from other sources. HIO administers the Fund out of which all payments to healthcare providers for the provision of healthcare services to GHS beneficiaries are made. A number of mechanisms aiming to safeguard the viability of the Fund have been employed, the most important being the Global budget which assumes that in any given financial year, the actual expenditure for any segment of healthcare providers cannot exceed the predetermined global budget, irrespectively of the volume of services provided.The GHS, as one of the biggest social reforms in Cyprus, is being implemented in two Phases. The first was implemented on June 1, 2019 and includes the provision of healthcare services by personal doctors, outpatient specialists, pharmaceutical care and laboratories, in an outpatient setting. The second and final stage will be implemented on June 1, 2020 and will include the remaining healthcare services such as inpatient care, nurses and midwives, allied health professionals, etc.

More information: www.gesy.org.cy