In the Italian health system, residential healthcare and social support is guaranteed for various categories of assisted individuals with clinical conditions who, following assessment by a physician, come under the following types:
Depending on your specific personal conditions, the severity and stability of your conditions, the severity of the symptoms, etc., the services can be provided for you intensively or extensively or can be targeted simply at maintaining your state of health.
The type of residential facility potentially available to you therefore depends on the type of care you need (intensive, extensive, long-term care and maintenance). All citizens are in any case guaranteed a care path that is as integrated as possible, if necessary including both healthcare and social care services.
To obtain more detailed information about the access criteria, organisation and cost-sharing for the residential care you need, please contact your local health authority.
Access to residential services is regulated by the general principles of universal access, fairness and appropriateness. If it is determined that you are not self-sufficient and cannot be cared for in your own home, you then have the right to choose a treatment location from among the various options offered by public or private facilities accredited with the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale – SSN).
Because the system covers services with various levels of treatment intensity, access to those services and continued treatment will be provided based on a verification of the effective appropriateness of the indication, on the basis of objective criteria for multidimensional assessment (MDA) of your needs.
To offer you better quality and efficiency in the service, almost all local health authorities and municipalities offer single information points where you can obtain a multidimensional assessment of your functional and social clinical needs, care management and an Individual Care Plan (Progetto di Assistenza Individuale – PAI).
The Italian National Health Service only covers the cost of the healthcare services provided. The cost of non-healthcare services and accommodation-related services (meals, cleaning, leisure activities, etc.) is payable by the patient or, in the case of financial difficulty, the patient’s municipality of residence.
However, because it is not always easy to distinguish between healthcare and non-healthcare services, a flat-rate criterion is applied and the cost payable by the local health authority varies depending on the percentage value identified by the Prime Ministerial Decree of 12 January 2017.
The rates that can be charged by accredited private care centres are determined by the provisions enacted by the various regions. The relationship between these facilities and the National Health Service is regulated by the contractual agreement, which makes it possible to identify precisely the number of services that can be provided by the facility and the corresponding rate-based remuneration.
Funding by the National Health Service is provided through the National Health Fund (Fondo Sanitario Nazionale – FSN), which is distributed among the various regions each year.
The regions assign the financial resources to the local health authorities on the basis of various parameters, which they use to guarantee they can provide citizens with the services for which they are responsible according to the Essential Levels of Care (Livelli Essenziali di Assistenza – LEA), including services provided in residential facilities.
Prime Ministerial Decree of 12 January 2017
Determination and updating of essential levels of care, in accordance with Article 1(7) of Legislative Decree No 502 of 30 December 1992, which makes a distinction between ‘intensive’ care services (Article 29) and ‘extensive’ care and ‘maintenance’ services (Article 30) and, lastly, end-of-life care services (Article 31), and the legislation relating to the requirements for authorisation and accreditation of public and private facilities within the SSN.
Last update 11 december 2020
