The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, said on Thursday, January 15, that oncology patients retain their priority for high-performance imaging investigations and that, in their case, “absolutely nothing changes”.
“Oncology patients benefit from MRI imaging investigations, for example, or computer tomography or other high-performance investigations within 5 days, because in the case of oncology, serial investigations are done, that is, the tumor is monitored by imaging constantly. It also takes 20 computer tomography, for example, for an oncology patient who has had a course of chemotherapy”said Alexandru Rogobete at Antena 3 CNN.
“In the field of oncology, absolutely nothing changes, they remain with the same priority as time“, he concluded.
Rogobete stated that the same logic applies to other national programs, such as diabetes and cardiology, in terms of compliance with medical protocols. “Medical protocols and guidelines recommend one investigation per year, meaning they recommend high performance investigations once a year“, declared the minister. “Either these investigations, which are recommended by the protocols, namely once a year, will be settled from the Monitor program”, he added.
The minister argued that emergencies remain treated as emergencies regardless of the rule. “But here too I want to emphasize: if a medical emergency occurs, obviously the patient has priority, being an emergency. And if an additional investigation is recommended compared to the mandatory one once a year for the reevaluation and evolution of the disease, it will be done at a scheduled pace.” Rogobete said.
Rogobete insisted that the measure is not aimed at restricting patient access, but at aligning with the medical indication and stopping unjustified settlements. “It is not against patients. But think about the fact that there wasn’t this regulation that also took into account medical guidelines and protocols. There was a series of abuses, MRIs upon MRIs, CT scans upon CT scans on patients who had no medical indication for such a thing. Or, that’s the problem”, explained the minister.
The minister also said that the Monitor program is aimed at those already diagnosed and included in the national programs.
“If a patient has not discovered his illness, he does not benefit from the Monitor program anyway, because the Monitor program is intended for patients included in the national health programs, i.e. those diagnosed”said Rogobete.
The National Health Insurance House has published the list of services benefiting from January 1, 2026, people enrolled in the national health programs.
The National Health Insurance Agency (CNAS) explained how imaging investigations (MRI, CT, scintigraphy, angiography) are settled in Romania through the national programs and Monitor tickets.
Thus, paraclinical investigations for the monitoring of chronic conditions can be done within a maximum of 5 working days from the request for patients with oncological conditions (settlement at the achieved level).
For patients diagnosed with diabetes, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, neurological diseases or chronic kidney disease, high-performance investigations (MRI, CT, etc.) can be done only once a year within 5 days from the date of request, and the rest of the investigations are carried out according to the schedule and within the limit of the contract value.
