The Centre of Health Economics

The Centre of Health Economics started to carry out its activities on 1 October 2009. The centre is one of the three state institutions directly responsible to the Ministry of Health of Latvia.

The centre has been established on the basis of the former State Medicines Pricing and Reimbursement Agency according to State Decree No 509 adopted on 29 July 2009 and entitled "The reorganisation of the state institutions directly responsible to the Ministry of Health", and the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers adopted on 29 September 2009. It has taken over several functions formerly carried out by the Public Health Agency, the Health Statistics and Medical Technologies State Agency and the Compulsory Health Insurance Agency.

The mission of the CHE, within its competence, is to:

• ensure the most effective use of the state budget in providing health care services
• implement state policy in the planning of health care services, obtain and analyse public health data and health care statistics and implement the e-Health programme according to the policy decided by the State.

All the activities of the CHE are based on the principles of health economics.

The team of professionals of the CHE – economists, pharmacists, doctors, public health analysts – executes the functions of the CHE by using scientific research and evidence-based data, financial calculations and the principles of evidence-based medicine.

The CHE determines the health care services funded from the State budget and calculates their tariffs, develops, maintains and updates the List of State Reimbursed Medicine, provides health technology assessment, summarises and analyses health data, including data specifically concerned with public health, executes public health monitoring and research and implements the e-Health programme. It also administers the implementation of EU Structural Funds.

The scope of activities and functions of the CHE

• In the area of health policy:

- create scientific and evidence-based proposals for the development of health care and public health policy and to make suggestions on priorities. It performs these functions by taking part in the drafting and assessment of legal and normative acts within its competence

- prepare proposals on the effective use of the State-assigned health care budget by using the principles of health economics

• In the field of health care technologies and tariffs:

- develop financial models of health care services and determine those which will be funded from the State budget

- develop the tariffs for those health care services which will be funded from the State budget

- provide a therapeutic and financial assessment of pharmaceutical products and medical technologies

- develop and update the List of State Reimbursed Medicine - the Positive List

- approve the medical technologies; develop and maintain a databases of approved and State- reimbursed health technologies

- prepare a list of clinical guidelines, evaluate them and ensure the methodical guidance of their implementation

- develop rational pharmacotherapy guidelines

• In the sphere of summarising and analysing public heath data and health care statistics: to

- obtain, summarise and analyse public health data and statistical information of health care.

- develop and maintain The Newborn Register, The State Genome Register of the Population, The Register of Patients with Particular Diseases; this register includes sub-registers on those patients suffering from tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus, cancer, occupational diseases, multiple sclerosis, mental and behaviour disorders, drug addiction, congenital anomalies and injuries and traumas.

- ensure the establishment, maintenance and updating of the following data bases: The Cause of Death Database, The Database of Health and Health Care Indicators, The Database of the Use of Hospital Beds and The Public Health Information and Monitoring System.

- provide public health monitoring. The purpose of this monitoring is to assess the general trends in health and to identify problems related to public health. The results of the monitoring are published periodically in the form of reports and analyses. The information is used by stakeholders in public health in order to help them in the process of decision making.

- carry out studies on the health habits of the general population. The data obtained from these studies contains information on the habits and lifestyles that affect health, reveals the extent of knowledge of individuals regarding health and their attitudes to various health risk factors. This information is important in developing a public health policy and the planning and evaluation of health promotion activities.

- implement the functions regarding the National Focal Point for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in the European Information Network on Drugs and Drug Addiction and maintain the early warning system on new psycho-active drugs.

• In the field of implementing EU funds

- execute the functions of the co-operation institution of European Union funds.

• In the sphere of e-Health

- implement the e- Health policy of the State, organise and co-ordinate the exchange of information among State health information systems

- implement the ERAF-funded e-Health projects