General practitioners' opinions on additional financing for work in the conditions of an announced epidemiological situation

The unprecedented restrictions placed in connection with controlling the COVID-19 pandemic lead to less activities being performed in primary health care (PHC), which lowered the National Health Insurance Fund' contractual payments to the providers of PHC. In practice, the general practitioners (GPs) were one of the providers at the front of the fight with COVID-19. Additional financing for working in the unfavorable conditions of an announced epidemiological situation was negotiated to compensate the measured drop and the extraordinary workload in PHC. This was done with the Methodology of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) from 2020. In this regard, the goal of the current research is to study the opinions of GPs on the additional financial stimulation introduced in the practice of PHC for work done in case of an announced epidemiological situation. The results of the questionnaire survey conducted among 394 GPs from the whole country - contractual partners of the NHIF - during the June 2022-October 2022 period, show that a share of respondents, who are happy with the measures taken for financial help in PHC practice, is small. As little as 12.2% of them find the rules about a payment of up to 85% of the determined base price in PHC to be fully adequate. The share of GPs, who are fully satisfied with the additional pay they received in the period November 1 2020-April 30 2022, is smaller (10.4%). A predominant number of GPs report an overall displeasure (dissatisfaction) with the compensation mechanism for the lowered workloads in PHC and the additional pay. A little over half the PHC practices covered (52.3%) have hired specialists in "Healthcare", who were also financially stimulated with additional monthly pay for the period November 1 2020-April 30 2022. The rest (47.7%) work without hiring such specialists which further burdens the GPs. All of this necessitates policies to stimulate the work of GPs, both in financial and professional terms.

THE REGULATION BY THE NHIF IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19 IN OPINION OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS.

The regulation over the expenditure of public funds for health is carried out by the only institution in the Republic of Bulgaria, which is responsible for the activities of the compulsory health insurance-the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). At present, research in the area of control related to the legal and effective expenditure of the statutory funds at the first level of medical care is not sufficiently covered. The aim is to clarify the degree of appropriateness in terms of control over the implementation of contracts for the provision of primary outpatient medical care (POMC) in the context of COVID-19, as well as to reveal gaps and bad practices in the control process, which will help to formulate recommendations for its optimization. The article presents the results of a survey conducted among 394 GPs across the country for the period from 23.06.2022 to 16.10.2022 using the online platform Google Forms. The results show that among two-thirds of the surveyed GPs (71.6%) there are suspicions of an unjustifiably high number of activities rejected for payment by the Fund. In one third of the surveyed GPs, another type of control by the NHIF was significantly more frequent in district centres (43.1%) compared to other localities (29.1%). Nearly half of the GPs (45.8%) were covered by inspections based on complaints from dissatisfied citizens. The main findings imply that appropriate action needs to be taken in the direction of optimizing control by the NHIF in order to raise the authority of the controlling institution perceived by POMC contractors.Copyright © 2022, Central Medical Library Medical University - Sofia. All rights reserved.

THE REGULATION BY THE NHIF IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19 IN OPINION OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS.

The regulation over the expenditure of public funds for health is carried out by the only institution in the Republic of Bulgaria, which is responsible for the activities of the compulsory health insurance-the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). At present, research in the area of control related to the legal and effective expenditure of the statutory funds at the first level of medical care is not sufficiently covered. The aim is to clarify the degree of appropriateness in terms of control over the implementation of contracts for the provision of primary outpatient medical care (POMC) in the context of COVID-19, as well as to reveal gaps and bad practices in the control process, which will help to formulate recommendations for its optimization. The article presents the results of a survey conducted among 394 GPs across the country for the period from 23.06.2022 to 16.10.2022 using the online platform Google Forms. The results show that among two-thirds of the surveyed GPs (71.6%) there are suspicions of an unjustifiably high number of activities rejected for payment by the Fund. In one third of the surveyed GPs, another type of control by the NHIF was significantly more frequent in district centres (43.1%) compared to other localities (29.1%). Nearly half of the GPs (45.8%) were covered by inspections based on complaints from dissatisfied citizens. The main findings imply that appropriate action needs to be taken in the direction of optimizing control by the NHIF in order to raise the authority of the controlling institution perceived by POMC contractors.Copyright © 2022, Central Medical Library Medical University - Sofia. All rights reserved.

Global work in a rapidly changing world: Implications for MNEs and individuals

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great "reset” and has challenged many assumptions about work and life in general. Our focus in this paper is on the future of global work in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We take a phenomenon-based approach to describe the important trends and challenges affecting the where, who, how and why of global work. As we highlight implications for organizations and individuals, we offer a set of research questions to guide future research and inform IHRM practitioners. © 2022

Application of GPU Accelerated Deep Learning Neural Networks for COVID-19 Recognition from X-Ray Scans

In this paper we are presenting the results of creation and training of a stand-alone expert system aimed at detection and diagnosis of COVID infection, that is based on automatic readings of X-ray imaging X Ray, which determines whether the patient has COVID pneumonia. The system is realized with deep learning neural networks and is accelerated with GPU utilized, instead of CPU. © 2022 IEEE.

“Your health and safety is of utmost importance to us”: A review of research on the occupational health and safety of international employees

Organizations cannot function without healthy and safe employees, a stark reality evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019-20: when lives are threatened, everything else becomes secondary. Few would question that there is a critical need to build HR-relevant knowledge of how to manage the health and safety of employees. Despite the duty of care carried by organizations and the fact that those who work across national borders are a particularly vulnerable group, there is surprisingly little discussion about their health and safety. We examined the literature relevant to the health and safety of international employees across four research disciplines. Our review of 180 papers found a growing yet fragmented field offering important insights with implications for HRM. Our paper is intended as both a review and a call for future advancement. We bring together disparate but related research streams in order to understand what is known about occupational health and safety related to working across national borders and to outline a roadmap for future research and practice. © 2020 Elsevier Inc.