Contractual dental medicine doctors warn that with the latest changes in the financing of primary health care, they have received significantly less increase than other activities and that the consequences of such a model could be felt by patients through reduced availability of services and longer waiting times.
As warned by the Network of Contractual Dental Medicine Offices in Croatia (MODDUS HR), Health Minister Irena Hrstić publicly announced in June that the value of a standard team in primary health care is increasing by an average of 18 percent. However, according to their data, the value of the dental team has increased by only 7.45 percent.
The difference, they claim, is particularly visible compared to general or family medicine teams without specialization, with which dental teams previously had equal starting values. After the changes in June 2026, the value of the dental team is about 12 thousand euros less annually, or approximately a thousand euros less monthly.
DTP coefficient increased less than others
MODDUS warns that dental teams have also fared worse in the increase of the value of diagnostic-therapeutic procedures (DTP).
The basic DTP coefficient, they state, has increased from eight to 12 euros, but not in dental medicine, where it has increased from eight to ten euros.
The financing problem, according to the Association, has been ongoing for years. They state that contractual dental medicine doctors have been working at reduced DTP prices from 2017 until June of this year. At the same time, patient rights have expanded without additional funds secured for dental teams, while since the pandemic, the limit of DTP services has increased without a corresponding increase in their prices.
According to MODDUS’s calculations, the result is a 46 percent higher workload at prices lower than those contracted back in 2013.
– After years of increasing workload without securing additional financial resources for contractual dental medicine teams, we expected that the announced changes in primary health care would correct the existing imbalance and inequality in financing. The opposite has happened. We fear that the consequences, besides contractual dental medicine doctors, will also be felt by our patients because the health care we must provide them is financed from those funds, warned the president of MODDUS HR, Irma Šavorić.
Some offices reach their limit by mid-month
The Association claims that insufficient financing is already reflected in the organization of office work. In some offices, the contracted monthly limit of DTP services is reached by mid-month.
If such a model continues, they warn, the consequence may be a reduction in the scope of services after reaching the limit, as well as longer waiting times for patients for contracted dental health care.
They see a particular problem in smaller and depopulated areas. Offices with fewer than 1,411 patients have their cold operating funds reduced by 50 percent, although, they emphasize, their offices have the same fixed costs.
This particularly affects offices in Slavonia, on the islands, and other areas with a declining population, where doctors often cannot reach the prescribed number of patients precisely due to demographic circumstances.
Request for financing correction
MODDUS HR has already submitted a request for financing correction to HZZO, and has also addressed the issue to Health Minister Irena Hrstić. They have requested a meeting with the Ministry and the inclusion of their representatives in the Working Group for the Improvement of Primary Health Care.
As they state in their press release, they have not yet received a response to those letters.
MODDUS HR gathers almost a quarter of contractual dental medicine doctors in Croatia, and demands that financing be aligned with the obligations that dental teams have towards patients before, as they warn, the lack of funds leads to a reduction in the availability of services.
They emphasize that patients who have the right to dental health care within the compulsory health insurance must be able to receive that care in a timely manner and in the full contracted scope.
