Introduction

The objective of Iceland Health is to become a centre of knowledge on purchases and payments in the field of healthcare and to have the best available knowledge on methods used for payment in healthcare. In doing so, we maximize the social benefits of the healthcare system and ensure access and quality for all.

Key figures

Total expenditure for all policy areas totaled approximately 243 billion in 2023, up from more than 218 billion in 2023. The cost of the defined benefit categories increased by approximately 225 billion between years, most notably due to a large increase in medical costs, which increased by 4.8 billion between years, including 3.5 billion due to the specialty medical agreement that took effect in mid-2023.

Training costs increased by 2.2 billion between years, mainly due to a new contract with physiotherapists. Medication costs increased by nearly 700 million between years, but in the previous year, the cost of Medication increased by 3 billion between years, and this was dealt with to slow the increase in spending. A table shows further breakdowns by policy areas, including geriatric institutions and various other items such as healthcare, ambulance services and rehabilitation.

High Contract Prices

One of the most important roles of the Iceland Health is the award and maintenance of contracts for the provision of healthcare. In 2024, the Iceland Health continued to support the development and access to healthcare throughout the country. A total of 847 new contracts were signed, including 542 physiotherapists and 219 dentists, as well as 47 specialist doctors. The total number of contracts and agreements was more than 1,500 at the end of the year. Of these more than 1,500 contracts, 412 are service contracts with specialist doctors, other contracts for healthcare and medical services 61, 57 contracts for elderly services, 84 for assistive devices and other contracts for training and rehabilitation 22.

It was a special cause for celebration that an agreement was reached with the Icelandic Dentists Association on a new five-year contract, the first comprehensive contract ever to be concluded with dentists. In addition, contracts with physiotherapists were signed after years of lack of agreement, as important provisions on the arrangement of service were added to the contracts. A total of 609 physiotherapists had a contract with the Iceland Health by the end of 2024.

New policy for health insurance

In 2024, the foundations were laid for a transformation of the activities of the Iceland Health, which aims to bring the institution closer to the role it was originally intended to play. At the beginning of the year, a large-scale policy development was undertaken, the main theme of which was to strengthen the role of the Iceland Health and increase efficiency in the tasks that the Iceland Health is intended to perform.

Health insurance will strive to ensure sustainable cost development and support government priorities in health. Emphasis will be placed on analysis to increase transparency and promote targeted policy making, with emphasis on assessing the need for services based on robust data, such as trends and rates of disease.

The Health Insurance policy also provides for the use of a variety of payment systems where the importance of service and performance-based funding will be increased and financial incentives will be used in a proactive manner to influence the quality and composition of services.

Digital services and self-service will be the main focus of the public service delivery, handling will be simplified and the processing time of transactions will be shortened with digital solutions. Processes will be simplified and coordinated, and automation will be used to promote targeted control of payments and services. Thus, we provide excellent services based on digital solutions and self-service.

Effective organization – improved services

The year 2024 was marked by structural changes in the operations of the Iceland Health, but these changes were made to promote the effective implementation of a new policy by better linking policy and organization. A new organization took effect in June and the main theme of the changes was to reduce the number of organizational units and merge departments so that the communication channels would be shorter, which makes information sharing, decision-making and implementation more efficient. In this way we add services to the public and healthcare professionals.

Strong and coherent staff is the foundation of all of what we do at Iceland Health. In 2024, special emphasis was placed on strengthening human resource management and supporting professional growth of staff. In doing this, we want to ensure that Iceland Health will continue to be a well-liked workplace and that we always have a strong group of staff that provides outstanding service. We look forward with great anticipation, determined to strengthen Iceland Health as a key pillar in the Icelandic healthcare system. It is the goal of Iceland Health with its changed policy and new organization to better fulfill our role in the Icelandic healthcare system and ensure equal access for all to first-class healthcare, to the benefit of the entire nation.