Once you already know how Bulgarian Healthcare System works and you have an ID card with a Personal Number for Foreigners (ЛНЧ) – a mandatory requisite – it’s time to pick your General Practitioner (GP) and your dentist.

It takes no money, just patience and some communication with institutions. And some Bulgarian, of course.

Choosing your GP/dentist for the first time is possible any time of the year. Changing either of them – the GP or dentist – is possible only in June or December.

When picking your GP for the first time, you must fill out in triplicate a Permanent General Practitioner Selection Form. You can get the form from stationery shops, or download it from the NHIF website – From the Citizens section, or pick it up from the regional NHIF office. You can fill it out at home or at the GP’s medical office.

No matter you want to pick GP or dentist. The procedure and selection form no difference.

With the filled out form you go to your selected GP. A list ot all GP’s in your area can be found online on the NHIF website, or in print copy at the regional NHIF office. So, you go to the GP’s medical office and show the doctor your foreigner ID card and the third copy of your Permanent GP Selection Form.

You must also bring an evidence of your paid Bulgarian state medical insurance. You could ask one at the National Revenue Agency’s offices or print one from the NRA website (available only in Bulgarian at the moment). That’s all. You have a GP now and it would be good if he or she speaks your language, right?

That is all.

The procedure of changing your GP is the same. You must remember that when choosing your next GP, you will need an excerpt from your medical file (a full copy or a stage epicrisis) from your previous GP.

The term for that is one month and transfer is done automatically. If you have no previous GP or have not previously used medical insurance in Bulgaria, your previous GP will send an official note to your new GP that you have no file.

You must know that your new GP could not refuse you medical assistance, as he or she is obliged to help you from the day you chose him or her. In fact, from the date you appeared on the GP’s patients list.

You do not need to inform your previous GP of your new choice, as the NHIF does this for you. The GP change form can be printed out from the NHIF website. It is located in the For citizens section (“За гражданите” in Bulgarian). No English version thereof.

And do not forget! You could pick your GP online too, but only in case you have a healthcare personal identification code (PIC).

You can also change your GP between June and December. It is applicable when you change your address, when your GP is impeded from practicing for more than 20 days (e.g. due to illness) or when he or she has suspended or cancelled their NHIF cooperation contract.

If you have children, you can pick or change a GP for them too, via the same procedure. Bulgaria makes part of the vaccines world, so you must know your children have to be vaccinated. In Bulgaria there is a strict immunization calendar.

If you want to read more you can of course check the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) website, but, frankly speaking, the information in English there is quite scarce, vague and not very useful.

Source: www.foreigner.bg