According to the provisions of The General Healthcare System (Amending) Law of 2017, that the GHS shall be implemented in two stages.
The second and final stage of GHS implementation, beginning June 1st, 2020, includes introduction of all the remaining healthcare services, i.e. inpatient healthcare and services, services offered by allied health professionals (clinical dieticians, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, and clinical psychologists), nurses and midwifes, the accident and emergency departments, ambulance services, dentists, palliative healthcare services and medical rehabilitation services.
Due to the dramatic social and economic effects effected by the COVID-19 epidemic during 2020, from June 1st 2020, Inpatient Services will be introduced by GHS and will be provided to all beneficiaries by all contracted hospitals. The rest of the Phase 2 services mentioned above, will be introduced at a later stage and the exact date will be announced by the HIO.
The collection of the contributions for the first stage will start on March 1st, 2019. For the complete implementation of the GHS, contributions started on March 1st, 2020, however, due to goverment measures for supporintg the economy during COVID-19, the contributions start may be deferred by 3 months (up to July 1st) under certain conditions.