“Fees have remained unchanged since 2012; update them to save accredited private healthcare providers”
Associations representing private healthcare facilities are calling for a flat-rate increase of 3.68 per cent in DRGs for acute care and an adjustment to the regions’ spending caps. “Without both, the increase in tariffs would result in fewer services for the public.”
The public healthcare tariff system has remained unchanged for fourteen years. This is the complaint made by AIOP (Italian Association of Hospital and Local Healthcare Organisations and Residential and Local Social-Healthcare Organisations) and ARIS (Religious Association of Social-Healthcare Institutions), set out in a written submission to the Joint Committees on the Budget and the Environment of the Chamber of Deputies as part of the examination of Decree-Law No. 144 of 7 August 2026.
The two associations represent the private-law sector of the National Health Service, which contributes to public healthcare with 64,000 beds (over 30 per cent of the total), more than 2 million annual admissions (28 per cent of the total) and over 291 million outpatient consultations (36.2 per cent of specialist outpatient care). The member organisations employ over 120,000 staff.
The issue of fees frozen since 2012
The system for remunerating hospital services is still determined on the basis of the Ministerial Decree of 18 October 2012. “This is a tariff system that has remained unchanged for fourteen years, which has been eroded by cumulative inflation since 2013 (amounting to 25.6 per cent) and is no longer in line with changes in production costs,” write Aiop and Aris.
The need to update the system has already been recognised by the legislature: Article 1, paragraph 280, of Law No. 234 of 2021 provided for the adjustment of maximum tariffs, and subsequent budget laws have allocated funds. Funds totalling 650 million euros have been earmarked for 2026, rising to 1 billion euros from 2027. “Despite the availability of these funds, the systematic updating of the rates has not yet been finalised”.
The proposalAiop and Aris are proposing two joint measures
The first: a linear increase of 3.68 per cent in the tariffs for acute hospital care services provided under ordinary and day-case admission schemes, with effect from 1 July 2026, using resources already allocated, with the increase to be reabsorbed at the time of the subsequent systematic update of the tariff schedule, to be carried out by 31 December 2027.
The second: an increase of 3.9 percentage points, with effect from 2026, in the expenditure limit for the procurement of healthcare services from accredited private providers. This adjustment takes into account both the impact of the update to the DRGs for acute care and that relating to hospital rehabilitation and post-acute long-term care services.
“The proposal thus enables these two aspects to be addressed in a unified manner, bringing about an initial adjustment to the remuneration for services – partially offsetting inflationary erosion and contributing to the sustainability of staff costs – whilst preserving the Regions’ ability to procure the necessary volumes of care within the National Health Service,” conclude Aiop and Aris.
Read the full article in Italian Quotidianosanita.it
