14. Juli 2019 – The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) reviewed the contributions of health care insurance to long-term nursing services as set forth in the restructuring of long-term care financing in 2011 and noted that the contributions were underestimated by CHF 83 million. In order to guarantee the neutrality of costs, the contributions to the nursing homes must be increased by 6.7%, while the contributions to the care at home will be decreased by 3.6%. The adjustment will lead to a financial discharge of the cantons, which are responsible for the remaining financing need in the area of health care. Furthermore, the FDHA decided that nursing staff will be given more competences in determining a patient’s care needs. This will reduce the administrative expenses, valorize the activities of nursing staff and implement some requests of the popular initiative “For a strong nursing care” (“Für eine starke Pflege” (Pflegeinitiative)). Finally, the FDHA defined new minimum requirements for the instruments used to determine nursing needs. This measure should facilitate equal nursing treatment of identical cases and ensure that similar cases are compensated more uniformly throughout Switzerland. The corresponding amendments to the Health Care Benefits Ordinance (Krankenpflege-Leisungsverordnung (KLV)) will enter into force on 1 January 2020 (for further information, see here).