BULGARIAN HOSPITALS INTRODUCE MANDATORY FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION FOR ADMISSION OF PATIENTS

Fingerprint identification of patients in Bulgarian hospitals becomes obligatory as of 1st of November. If patients refuse the fingerprint scan, the hospital will not get paid and may decline admission.

The obligatory introduction of fingerprint identification in all hospitals in the country was supposed to come into force as of 1st of October 2016, but was postponed for a month because not all hospitals had readiness to introduce the new technology.

The aim of introducing fingerprint recognition is to reduce misuse of funds paid by healthcare contributions.

Through the use of fingerprint readers, the fingerprints turn into biometric digital code which would show the name of the insured patient.