Campania: spending limits for accredited private providers finalised, with an additional 27 million

The new budgets for spending caps in Campania have been announced, showing an increase of 27 million, according to the regional resolution, which implements the increases decided at national level. The Executive Committee led by Roberto Fico has approved the 2026 planning framework for services purchased from private healthcare facilities subject to the spending review, setting the spending limits for the current year for each of the 58 accredited private care homes. The measure specifies that the plan may be revised pending ‘any additional financial resources’; it is valid for the 2026 financial year and, on a provisional basis, for the 2027 financial year. The Region therefore reserves the right to adopt subsequent measures to readjust the spending limits in light of any regulatory or tariff changes. In effect, we are talking about an increase of 18 million plus 9 million resulting from the tariff update provided for by the Ministerial Decree of 12 May for care homes providing post-acute care, of which 3.350 million is already available, whilst for the remainder, we will have to wait for national legislation to make the funds available.

When weighing up the figures based on the 2011 final expenditure figures, to which a 6.5 per cent increase is to be applied, and the spending review and the planned exemptions, the AIOP points out that the figures do not add up and that around 20 million is being cut from the private hospital sector. ‘These measures were adopted following discussions with sector representatives, who acted with responsibility and autonomy. The aim,’ says the president of the Campania region, Fico, ‘is to put the 2026 financial year in order and, at the same time, provide a outlook for 2027 and beyond. From next year, the criteria for setting the spending caps will be defined at the start of the financial year. Our sound financial management has enabled us to exit the recovery plan, and this is the condition for remaining outside it, for the protection of all,’ he explains. Overall, the spending caps amount to around 780 million. The increase in the 2026 spending limits resulting from the tariff update provided for in last May’s ministerial decree, “is not, however, the Region’s doing,” emphasises the president of Aiop Campania, Sergio Crispino, “they represent unchanged expenditure. It is a necessary measure. Moreover, these are tariffs that the State is updating for the first time in 14 years. However, these funds are currently tied up in Rome, because when drafting the legislation, they failed to include even a single line stating that the allocated sums directly increase expenditure on the procurement of services,” he adds, “and so there is a bottleneck and there is still no legal framework in place for the transfer.”

Crispino goes on to explain that there is also the problem that ‘these rates apply to care homes with a 5 per cent reduction for long-term care and a 4 per cent reduction for rehabilitation. And we have not understood the reasoning behind this. The State has funded 100 per cent of the cost and these are earmarked funds’. The condition for proceeding and remaining within the spending limits is the signing of the contract included in the resolution which, amongst other things, contains a safeguard clause requiring the withdrawal from any ongoing legal disputes. Failure to waive these claims and to sign the contract will also apply in 2027. This is an ‘unlawful’ clause, according to AIOP, which cites a ruling by the Council of State, ‘particularly now that we have exited the Recovery Plan’. The president of the trade association estimates the value of the litigation between 2018 and 2026 at around 400 million euros for services provided in excess of the budget and hopes for a settlement.

In a further resolution, the regional executive has updated the amounts paid to accredited public and private healthcare facilities in Campania, with effect from 1 July 2026, for hospital admissions aimed at recovery and functional rehabilitation, as well as long-term care following acute illness. In these cases, the reimbursement is set at 96 per cent and 95 per cent of the national maximum tariff for accredited private facilities and is confirmed at 100 per cent for public facilities and private IRCCS centres; For admissions to spinal units and neurorehabilitation, the cost is covered at 90 per cent of the national maximum tariff for all facilities and at 100 per cent of the national maximum tariff in the case of admission in a permanent vegetative state or with minimal consciousness, for all public hospitals and for the private IRCCS Maugeri in Telese.