The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) will discuss and vote on opening its financial reserve, NHIF head Dr Vladimir Daskalov said. He spoke to journalists after a meeting of the fund's supervisory board, who asked how this year's budget is being carried out.

Deputy head Zdravko Shushkov presented an analysis of the budget. It shows spending will go as planned, with no deviations. If any appear, the fund will cover them from the reserve. Shushkov expects drug companies to pay the fund back more than 300m euros in rebates.

"The system for getting money back from drug companies is especially important to us, and we expect big payments from it," Daskalov said.

The NHIF budget was passed in the summer, and the National Framework Contract was signed in September. Daskalov said "the deadlines are as short as they can be, but this does not stop us making up the time we need for the paperwork".

The board also approved exceptional contracts. Hospitals can ask for these, with reasons, when they lack specialists for certain clinical pathways. The shortage is worst among anaesthetists and intensive care doctors. The board approved requests from hospitals in the remote areas of Peshtera, Ardino and Yambol.

The children's hospital in Sofia also got an exception. It needs two specialists in pulmonology and phthisiatry, meaning lung disease and tuberculosis. The Specialised Hospital for Active Treatment in Endocrinology in Sofia also signed a contract for one surgeon.

Dr Stoycho Katsarov, who represents patient groups on the supervisory board, proposed discussing the rules for granting these contracts, because there are more and more of them.

The NHIF check at the regional health fund office in Plovdiv is not yet over. Surprise checks are also due at other regional health fund offices.

The fund is preparing real-time cross-checking, which is still to be introduced. At present it pays first, then checks, and may later find money that was wrongly spent, Daskalov explained. Under the new system, the fund will not pay until it gets a proper explanation of why a procedure was halted during the check.