Children, elderly and disabled persons guaranteed payment participation for dental services in contract
13th June 2024
The first agreement on all dental services for a long period.
“This comprehensive agreement on dental services is another step in the government’s journey to reduce people’s payment for healthcare and thus promote equal access. The agreement is valid for five years, like the recently concluded agreement on the services of physical therapists and the agreement on the services of specialist doctors. I congratulate the parties and the recipients of services for this milestone,” says Minister of Health Willum Þór Þórsson.
“We believe that the agreement will lead to improved dental health for children, the elderly and the disabled. It is the first comprehensive long-term agreement on all dental services. This is in our opinion an extremely satisfying stage,” says CEO of Iceland Health Sigurður H. Helgason on the new agreement signed between the Icelandic Dental Association and Iceland Health this morning.
“We dentists are very much inclined to believe that these groups will have the opportunity to receive good service in the welfare society we want to belong to,” says Elín Sigurgeirsdóttir, dentist and chair of the Icelandic Dental Association.
A new agreement guarantees dental payments for children, elderly and disabled people for the next five years. At the same time, a new and clearer regulation on the cost participation of the Icelandic Health Insurance will be published. The agreement increases the number of treatments paid by Iceland Health and have not been paid before. Modernization is also considered in the light of innovations in a number of areas of dentistry, but the agreement will mostly concern dental procedures and data communication with the Icelandic Health Insurance.
The agreement is for five years and will apply in part on 1 July and in full on 1 September.
A comprehensive revision of the regulation on the participation of health insured persons in dental practice has been underway. Among other things, the condition for assessment by the dental department will be waived as a prerequisite for payment participation in orthodontic treatments due to serious inborn defects, while Iceland Health will be allowed to call for such assessment at the beginning of the orthodontic treatment process.
It can be noted that in September of the past year, the amount of funding for general orthodontic treatments was nearly tripled. This increase was made possible following the breakthrough agreement between Iceland Health and orthodontic specialists signed in July of last year.
More services purchased from dentists
In the last year, 62,883 children received dental services through the payment participation of the Icelandic Health Insurance, while Iceland Health pays in full for all necessary dental services for children, except for the entry fee. In addition, 33,772 old-age pensioners and 14,283 disability pensioners received payments for dental services during the year.
The number of individuals who have sought dental services through the Social Insurance Administration has increased steadily over the past four years, to nearly 113 thousand in 2022, or an increase of 4.7% YoY. The number of dentists who worked under contracts with the Social Insurance Administration in 2023 has not changed much, but totaled 305.