How to appeal the decisions of expert teams that replaced the MSEC: advice from the Ministry of Health
6 January 2025 04:51
After the liquidation of medical and social expert commissions, expert teams began to be created in Ukraine. Their decisions can be appealed. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Health, the Center for Assessment of the Functional Status of a Person has been established. It will play an important role in ensuring the objectivity and transparency of the process of assessing a person’s daily functioning. Its tasks are to provide organizational and methodological advice to expert teams, verify the validity of decisions of expert teams and previous decisions of the MSEC, and consider complaints against decisions of expert teams.
The Center for Assessment of the Functional Status of a Person:
- provides organizational and methodological advice to expert teams;
- verifies the validity of the decisions of expert teams and the decisions of the MSEC adopted before January 1, 2025;
- considers appeals against decisions of expert teams.
The expert teams of the Evaluation Center consist of doctors from various state healthcare institutions.
How to file a complaint against the Center for the Evaluation of the Functional Status of a Person
You can file a complaint
- in paper form – by sending a complaint by mail to the Center for the Assessment of Functional Status of a Person;
- in electronic form– by contacting a doctor who must register the complaint in the electronic system for assessing the person’s daily functioning.
To file a complaint in electronic form, you must contact the attending physician who previously referred the complainant for an assessment. The attending physician will file the complaint in electronic form and send it to the Evaluation Center using the electronic system for assessing the person’s daily functioning (abbreviated as the electronic system). The complainant or his/her authorized representative may also send the complaint in paper form by post to the Evaluation Center.
What the complaint must contain:
- Full name of the complainant.
- Address of residence or stay.
- Contact details (phone, email).
- Requirements and their justification.
- The date of the complaint.
The deadline for filing a complaint is 40 calendar days from the date of sending an extract from the decision of the expert team that is being appealed to the complainant (his/her authorized representative).
What to do if the appeal deadline is missed?
If the deadline for filing an appeal has been missed for valid reasons (business trip, temporary disability, military service), you can submit a request for its renewal to the Evaluation Center.
The application must be accompanied by copies of documents confirming the existence of valid reasons.
The application can be submitted in electronic or paper form.
The Evaluation Center will consider such requests within five business days and notify its decision by mail or through the electronic system.
If the deadline is extended, the complaint must be filed within 10 working days after receiving the relevant notification from the Evaluation Center.
Complaints may be considered in person, in absentia or via telemedicine.
The expert team of the Evaluation Center analyzes the documents, listens to the explanations of the complainant or his/her authorized representative, and, if necessary, conducts a re-evaluation. The reassessment is based on the results of the complainant’s medical examination conducted at the healthcare facility to which the Evaluation Center refers.
If the complainant refuses to undergo a medical examination or fails to attend it (except in cases of business trip, temporary disability or mobilization of the complainant), the expert team of the Evaluation Center decides to cancel the decision under appeal.
Decision of the Evaluation Center
Based on the results of the appeal consideration, the Evaluation Center may make the following decisions
- to uphold the contested decision;
- to cancel the appealed decision;
- to make a new decision (in this case, the expert team of the Evaluation Center must make a new decision based on the results of the appellant’s evaluation).
