Kidney Disease Law

This Law regulates the treatment of patients with terminal chronic renal insufficiency in public and private health facilities, SUMMARY Section A Decrees and Agreements LEGISLATIVE BRANCH Decree: NATIONAL RENAL LAW. A. 1-4 221-2013 Decrees: Approve the Budget of Income and Expenses of the Honduras Mail Company (HONDUCOR). A. 4-6 NATIONAL INSTITUTION OF FOREST CONSERVATION AND FOREST DEVELOPMENT, PROTECTED AREAS AND WILDLIFE "ICF" Agreement Number 026A-2013. A. 7-8 SECRETARIAT OF EDUCATION Agreement No. 2291-SE-2013. Executive Agreement No. 001-SE-2013. A. 9-10 PROGRESS A. 12 Section B Legal Notices NATIONAL RENAL LAW TITLE I GENERAL PROVISIONS CHAPTER I GENERAL DISPOSITIONS

This Law regulates the treatment of patients with terminal chronic renal insufficiency in public and private health facilities, regardless of their location or nature of services. Private facilities providing these services are subject to the relevant regulations and supervision within the scope of the Health Code.

Compliance with the provisions emanating from this Law is the responsibility of the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health and the entire public and private system. Similarly, this Secretariat of State must establish, through regulations, the minimum conditions for enablement and operation of the treatment and laboratory units referred to in this Law, with respect to their physical infrastructure, equipment and sustainability, disposable materials, education and training of human resources.

The State must create a Special Program with national coverage ascribed to the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health, through which free care is provided to kidney patients without exception. Renal Patients currently affiliated with the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS) or other national or foreign private medical insurance systems must receive their treatment from these institutions as a first option, but in exceptional and justified cases, patients actively affiliated with the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS) or other private medical insurance systems, national or foreign, may receive care through the Special Program with national coverage, subject to an agreement that these institutions must enter into with the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health. The Program must include diagnostic services, treatment, transplants, recovery and development of prevention policies.

The State, through the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health, must increase the number of public units providing the services referred to in this Law. For this purpose, it must promote the installation at the local, departmental and regional level of facilities with an adequate level of complexity to guarantee patient care as close as possible to their place of residence. In units that lack a permanent specialized professional, the services of a nephrologist physician must be contracted, who shall travel periodically at least once every fifteen (15) days. CHAPTER II PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES

The Secretariat of State in the Department of Health must guarantee the hiring of specialized and technical service personnel; and also promote continuing education in the different medical-technical areas of permanent staff. In the same way, it will provide medicines, supplies and implements, as well as the maintenance of equipment for the provision of diagnostic services, other treatments and recovery services.

The Special Unit for Prevention of Renal Patients is created, which must operate ascribed to the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health and which shall have the following functions and attributes:

• 1)

  Conduct national campaigns to raise awareness among the population about prevention methods and explain what treatment consists of for kidney patients, as well as explain to the population the main causes of terminal chronic renal insufficiency, including: diabetes, arterial hypertension, polycystic kidney, tuberculosis, urinary infections;

• 2)

  Promote the conduct of controls and analyses, especially in the at-risk population, which shall be performed at least annually;

• 3)

  Maintain a registry that includes people diagnosed with chronic renal insufficiency with renal replacement therapy through dialysis, transplant or susceptible of receiving it in the short term;

• 4)

  Collect and analyze information on the incidence, prevalence and mortality from renal insufficiency, as well as its geographic distribution;

• 5)

  Identify risk groups in the most affected zones and regions to plan and evaluate prevention and care activities for this pathology;

• 6)

  Conduct epidemiological investigations and basic and clinical research of the disease;

• 7)

  Disseminate and socialize relevant epidemiological information for prevention among health professionals and the general population;

• 8)

  Provide psychological assistance before and during the care process;

• 9)

  Organize and promote, through agreements with friendly countries, specialized medical brigades; and,

• 10)

  Create histocompatibility laboratories for renal transplants.

The National Renal Council is created, with the purpose of facilitating the design and monitoring the application of health policies, regulations, and acquisition mechanisms related to the renal area, composed of a representative from each of the following entities:

• 1)

  The Special Unit for Prevention of Renal Patients;

• 2)

  The Honduran Association of Nephrology and Transplants; and,

• 3)

  The National Chapter of the Latin Association of Renal Patients.

Patients affected by acute renal insufficiency and those suffering from chronic renal insufficiency who need, in addition to dialysis, special clinical and surgical treatment, must be treated in units belonging to facilities with a higher degree of complexity. The provision in the preceding paragraph shall apply once cases require emergency medical care in places that lack high-complexity facilities that do not have intensive care services. In these cases, patients must be transferred to the aforementioned services immediately after receiving first aid and being stabilized. CHAPTER III FINAL DISPOSITIONS

The State guarantees the allocation of the logistical and personnel resources required to comply with the provisions of this Law; for this purpose, the corresponding budget items must be incorporated in the General Budget of Income and Expenses in each fiscal year. Such budget allocations must be incorporated in the Budget of the Secretariat of State in the Department of Health.

The State must approve a Law that regulates organ transplantation to restore full health to patients suffering from renal insufficiency and other pathologies.

The State, through the Public Health System, must establish an Interdisciplinary Commission for the purpose of creating the National Renal Transplant Program, which must include in its content the academic technical-medical, operational and financial components, which must be incorporated in the General Budget of Income and Expenses in the corresponding special item.

The Secretariat of State in the Department of Health must issue the Regulation for the Application of this Law within a period of sixty (60) days from its effective date.

This Decree shall enter into force as of the day of its publication in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta". Given in the city of Tegucigalpa, municipality of the Central District, in the Session Hall of the National Congress, on the sixth day of the month of September of two thousand thirteen. MAURICIO OLIVA HERRERA PRESIDENT, BY THE LAW RIGOBERTO CHANG CASTILLO SECRETARY GLADIS AURORA LOPEZ CALDERON SECRETARY To the Executive Power. Therefore: Execute. Tegucigalpa, M.D.C., October 17, 2013. PORFIRIO LOBO SOSA PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. SALVADOR PINEDA PINEDA Legislative Power DECREE No. 221-2013 THE NATIONAL CONGRESS, WHEREAS: That the Constitution of the Republic in its Article 205 establishes that it is an attribute of the National Congress of the Republic to approve annually the General Budget of Income and Expenses, taking as a basis the project sent by the Executive Power, properly itemized and to resolve on its modification. WHEREAS: That the Honduras Mail Company (HONDUCOR) was created with the objective of providing Postal Service to the entire Honduran population at the lowest prices on the country's market. WHEREAS: That the National Congress of the Republic, through Decree No. 223-2012 dated January 18, 2013 and published in the Official Gazette "La Gaceta", in its edition No. 33,044 of February 6 of this year, approved the General Provisions for the Execution of the General Budget of Income and Expenses of the Republic and Decentralized Institutions, which establish that to carry out budgetary modifications that affect allocations of capital expenditures to finance current expenditures, approval of this Branch of State is required, and that the National Agrarian Institute (INA) requires a budgetary modification in order to comply with the payment of obligations acquired with personnel working therein through the Permanent System. WHEREAS: That it is the exclusive attribute of the National Congress to create, decree, interpret, reform and repeal laws.