June 27, 2022 - You see them on the street, you see them on your bills, and you hear them on the phone. Who is who among the Croatian public services and institutions? We'll tell you more in this short guide.

If moving to Croatia is one of your short-term projects, or even if you're already in the process of adaptation, you may have heard of or been in contact with one of these institutions. These Croatian public services and institutions will be part of your daily life here, and it is true that sometimes it can be a bit confusing trying to distinguish them from each other.

In this short guide, we've listed some of the Croatian public services and institutions that you will be in contact with most often, and we hope that this will help you when you don't know where to go for a certain task, or when it's time to do your accounts at home.

MUP

If you're working on getting your residency or citizenship in Croatia, you have most likely gone to a local MUP office. It's also likely that they've called you on the phone or have written you an email or two. MUP is the Ministry of the Interior, and it provides services to both locals and foreigners alike. At MUP, you will also carry out procedures to obtain your passport, your driver's license, your Croatian identification card, and more.

HZZO 

HZZO is the Croatian Health Insurance Fund, it's part of the Ministry of the Health and it includes everything that is related to public health insurance services in the country. As you well know, public health insurance is mandatory if you reside in Croatia. If you wish to enroll in the Croatian public health system, you must go to the HZZO offices in your city of residence. There you can also find out everything related to your health coverage, sign up with a family doctor, and more.

HZZ

HZZ is the Croatian Employment Office, and it serves to report your current employment status, whether you've found a job or if you don't currently have one. At the Employment Office, you can also find job openings that match your skills. 

HZMO

The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) is a public institution that is dedicated to the implementation of mandatory pension insurance based on generational solidarity (1st pillar of the pension insurance) and the child benefit entitlement procedure.

Porezna uprava

Porezna uprava is the Croatian Tax Administration, and it's a unique and independent administrative organisation within the Finance Ministry whose basic task is the application and supervision of tax regulations and laws on the collection of contributions. Most of your bills will be issued by Porezna uprava. They'll also issue you with tax rebates.

FINA

FINA, the Financial Agency, is a leading Croatian company in the field of financial and electronic service provision. Although state-owned, Fina operates exclusively on a market basis and cooperates with banks, the Croatian National Bank, numerous business systems, and other similar entities. A multitude of payments can be paid at their offices.

Hrvatska Pošta

Hrvatska Pošta is the Croatian Post Office, and it has locations in every city and town across the country. In addition to being the place where you can send letters and packages throughout the country and even abroad, it's also the place where you can pay for your phone, electricity, water, health insurance, and more.

HEP

A state-owned company, HEP is the Croatian Electricity Company and it is the only energy entity authorised to provide a public electricity supply in the Republic of Croatia. It also performs the activities of electricity production and heat production for central heating systems, in addition to the management, maintenance, construction, and development of the electricity distribution network.

HAC 

Hrvatske autoceste or Croatian Motorways Ltd is a Croatian state-owned limited liability company tasked with the management, construction, and maintenance of motorways in Croatia.

HRT

Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) performs the activity of providing public broadcasting services. On their radio and television channels, they dedicate themselves to the dissemination of news, information, culture and other related content. Even if you don't watch their channels or listen to their radio stations, a bill of 80 kuna from HRT will always arrive at your home.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

June the 4th, 2022 - The Croatian company Atos has been chosen as the more favourable bidder for a new Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) project worth a lot of money. The company will spend nineteen months on the project.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) has announced the start of the brand new eHZZO project, worth almost 115 million kuna, which aims to establish more efficient management and supervision within the healthcare system.

The construction of this brand new new system is being co-financed by the European Union (EU), and will enable easier communication with external users, as well as the high availability of data necessary for business process management and different forms of reporting.

"The Croatian Health Insurance Institute has one of the most important information systems in operation within the Republic of Croatia, so the eHZZO project will benefit all insurance policyholders through the better organisation and availability of the healthcare system," said Deputy Director of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute, Veronika Lausin.

The entire eHZZO project is worth a total of 114.7 million kuna, of which 85 percent is being financed with European Union money. The project will be worked on for the aforementioned period of nineteen months, and the strategic partner of the project, the Croatian company Atos, was selected as the most favourable bidder in the 2021 tender.

Three bidders, two consortia and one independent bidder appeared in the tender. The Croatian company Atos applied for the tender within a group consisting of a Czech company of the same name and a Macedonian enterprise called Nextsense, and their offer was the cheapest of all.

Ericsson Nikola Tesla and IN2 also competed together with CUSPIS. The third bidder was King ICT.

For more on Croatian companies, entrepreneurs and innovation, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

ZAGREB, 18 May 2022 - The Croatian Health Insurance Agency (HZZO) will cover the cost of pregnancy termination for Mirela Čavajda in a hospital in Ljubljana.

The HZZO said this in a statement issued after earlier in the day the Jutarnji List daily reported that Čavajda would most probably not have the cost of her pregnancy termination abroad covered by the HZZO.

Čavajda is a woman six months into her pregnancy who who could not have her pregnancy terminated in Croatia despite the fetus's serious malformations.

Jutarnji List says is has learned from unofficial sources that Croatian doctors, even though they refuse to perform the procedure guaranteed by law, are also unwilling to put their refusal down in writing, and that hospitals have sent the HZZO notifications saying that Čavajda has been offered the necessary medical procedure - induced labour.

"Since she does not want that procedure but insists on pregnancy termination, the HZZO considers this to be a refusal of the medical service offered in Croatia, which makes it questionable if there are legal grounds for the HZZO to cover the cost of the medical service she will seek in Slovenia", the daily says.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

April the 17th, 2022 - The much more rapid and efficient listing of HZZO medicine could end up saving the already enfeebled Croatian healthcare system another billion kuna.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the Croatian healthcare system could save an additional one billion kuna per year if the policy of putting generic and biologically similar drugs on the lists of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) was improved and accelerated, according to Croatian pharmaceutical generic companies within the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP).

Currently, the system saves about 300 million kuna a year with the use of this HZZO medicine, but the potential is significantly higher, said Jerko Jaksic, president of the Association of Drug Manufacturers at HUP, at a briefing for journalists which took place on Thursday.

According to data from back in 2019, 61 percent of the volume of prescription drugs in the Republic of Croatia is made up of generic drugs, which is slightly lower than the EU average of 67 percent. The situation with biosimilars is much worse, they accounted for a modest 13 percent of the market in total consumption of biological drugs.

Although further growth is expected in the coming years, in addition to education, it's necessary to accelerate their application when they are registered with the European Medicines Agency and the Croatian Medicines Agency.

As the manufacturers have explained, the HZZO procedure for listing a drug, which is purely administration and paperwork, takes an average of four to six months, during which time money is directly lost that could be saved by using generic instead of innovative therapy.

“So-called drug penetration into the system should be significantly quicker, which is even more significant when it comes to biological drugs, as biological drugs are very expensive. We have announcements from the Croatian Health Insurance Fund that this process could be accelerated, and we're very happy about that. There's no reason why a drug shouldn't automatically be on the list immediately after its registration, and it would be very good if the new procedure comes to life by the middle of this year because patents for some drugs expire soon,'' Jaksic said.

In particular, these are diabetes related drugs, and the potential for savings is 30 percent for the healthcare system, with the release of patient participation. With proper application, in 2023, 15 percent more patients could be treated for the same cost in this segment alone, HUP pointed out. The data also shows that biosimilars have increased the availability of biologic therapy.

For example, in the immunology segment, 67 percent more patients were treated for only 19 percent more. Back in 2021, 2.5 times more patients were treated with the chemotherapy mitigation drug than in 2019 for approximately the same total cost. In 2020 alone, biosimilars provided savings of 200 million kuna. However, the biggest shortcoming in the drug policy in Croatia is still poor cost control, due to insufficient therapeutic guidelines and measuring the effectiveness of therapies, they added from HUP.

Patient registries exist only for a small number of diagnoses and a large role in this is played by patient associations, which are as such fighting for the better availability of some drugs, but for most patients and diagnoses, not all treatment parameters are systematically monitored.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 13 April 2022 - The fight against the COVID-19 epidemic has cost the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) HRK 5 billion (€666.6m) over the last two years and two months, Jutarnji List newspaper said on Wednesday.

The cost only includes testing, treatment, sick leave and vaccination, but not other economic costs, the cost of equipment or the cost of conversion of hospitals and other facilities used for the treatment of COVID patients.

As for the costs covered by the HZZO, treatment cost around HRK 1.9 billion (€253.3m),  testing HRK 1.7 billion (€226.6m), sick leave HRK 290 million (€38.6m) and vaccination HRK 1 billion (€133.3m).

The newspaper said that the amount spent by the HZZO would be enough to cover the debts of the health care system.

In addition to the cost of health care, by far the most expensive measure was the government's job retention scheme, which cost HRK 18 billion (€2.4bn).

In total, at least HRK 23 billion (€3.06bn) has been spent on combating the coronavirus epidemic since the first case was confirmed in Croatia on 25 February 2020, according to Jutarnji List.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

April the 2nd, 2022 - Croatian retirees, we well as other groups of people legally resident in Croatia, can now request free supplementary health insurance coverage (dopunsko zdravstveno osiguranje) through the Croatian Health Insurance Fund, HZZO.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, HSU (Croatian Party of Pensioners) has called on all Croatian retirees, but also other residents to whom this new and very welcome rule applies, to make sure they take the opportunity to exercise their right to free supplementary health insurance.

Many Croatian retirees, as well as other groups of individuals who fall into the category of people to whom this applies, have still not exercised their right to supplementary health insurance at the expense of the state and may be needlessly paying for it, if they have it already. Amendments to the Law on Voluntary Health Insurance which came into force back in November last year, at the initiative of the HSU, raised the threshold.

This new free policy for an additional form of health insurance through HZZO can be realised by anyone who has an income of up to 2,065.60 kuna per family member, or 2,582 kuna for a single person.

If this is you, then what needs to be done?

If you are a Croatian retiree or fall into one of the aforementioned categories of people, you can make your way to your nearest local HZZO office and fill out the appropriate form to conclude your contract on supplementary health insurance at the expense of the state. A clerk working there will be able to point you in the right direction and guide you through the process and what you can expect from it if necessary.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The number of cases of sick leave in the pandemic year 2021 was up by 11% from 2020, and the number of cases of sick leave due to self-isolation grew by 14% compared to the previous year, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) said this past Friday.

The sick leave rate in 2021 was up by 11.1% and the related cost for employers grew by 15.6% and for the HZZO by 6.8%.

The number of cases of sick leave due to coronavirus-related self-isolation grew by 14% compared to 2020.

Sick leave controls covered the medical records of 49,265 persons, after which sick leave was terminated for 17,366 persons, or 35% of the cases checked, an increase of as much as 196% compared to 2020.

HZZO controllers conducted 18,951 checks of offices, hospitals and suppliers of medical equipment, focusing on family doctors, with 18,603 checks made. In 89% of the cases no irregularities were detected. As for breaches of contractual obligations in the remaining 11% of the cases, 2,066 decisions were made, including warnings, warnings with fines, and warnings prior to contract termination, and procedures were launched to terminate two health service providers' contracts with the HZZO.

February the 18th, 2022 - Those job seekers who aren't registered with the Croatian Employment Service and don't use the service to look for work could end up without any health insurance, it has emerged.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, all unemployed persons who have failed to register themselves with the Croatian Employment Service (CES) could be left without their right to health insurance. Namely, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO), as part of their ongoing process of ''cleaning up'' their register, is preparing legal amendments which, twenty years after their initial abolition, will return the provision according to which an unemployed person acquires health insurance only if he is registered with the Croatian Employment Service.

This means that, according to some rough calculations, in the coming period, another 100,000 people could apply to the Croatian Employment Service. This would also regard all kinds of currently unemployed people who are not looking for a job through the service at all, because otherwise they could easily be left without healthcare coverage.

The number of unemployed Croatian residents registered at the Croatian Employment Service would double in such a case: according to the CES, there were a total of 129,459 people registered as unemployed with them on Wednesday, as was reported by Jutarnji list.

The Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) has already signed an agreement on the establishment of a proper IT connection with the service so that it can automatically control who is and who is not registered, and it has similar agreements with both the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) and the Tax Administration.

The purpose of the move is to ''clean up'' the register of insured persons of about 300,000 people, as many as are estimated not to be entitled to Croatian health care, yet are likely still accessing it.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

February 11th, 2022 - Primary care providers are not responding lightly to the accusations of being unavailable to their patients. At the same time, they are being reprimanded by the HZZO for the sick leave rate increase, despite it largely being caused by COVID-19

The pandemic has led to a significant increase in the number of workers taking sick leave. More than a million citizens have been infected with the coronavirus in the last two years, and as of yesterday, 21,865 people were in isolation.

Although some of them only have mild symptoms and continue to work from home, a good number of people are forced to take sick leave. However, although it is clear to auditors from the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) that taking time off for this reason is justified, GPs are being reprimanded for the amount of sick leave they’ve been approving, reports Vecernji list/Romana Kovačević Barišić.

‘My allowed rate of sick leave is 2.8%, and I had 5.5%. The [HZZO] audit did not find any irregularities, but I received a warning for exceeding the rate nonetheless. I didn’t want to sign it, but I was informed that I was putting my contract in jeopardy. I filed a complaint. It was accepted, but it was also confirmed that my exceeding the sick leave rate was unjustified as I signed a contract with the HZZO stating that I would adhere to the stated rate as a contractual obligation. And the pandemic isn’t mentioned anywhere in the contract’, said Marija Gluhak MD, a family doctor from Međimurje, describing her case from November last year.

In case of repeated warnings, the practitioners are first subject to a fine, followed by a possible termination of their contract with the HZZO.

Dr. Vesna Potočki Rukavina MD has seen her contractual sick leave rate of 2.5% increase to 4.9% in the last two months.

‘Omicron has caused a considerable increase in acute sick leave. It mostly affects the younger part of the workforce and inevitably excludes them from work obligations, and HZZO does not look at the situation in the field objectively, so they reprimanded some of my colleagues’, said Dr. Potočki Rukavina. She hasn’t received a warning despite having exceeded the mentioned contractual rate, which only points to the absurdity of a dry bureaucratic approach which is devoid of logic and uneven across the board.

The HZZO point out that they have an obligation to monitor and control the Temporary Incapacity for Work (TIW) of the insured to see whether the status is justified, and to do so both on a regular basis and in exceptional circumstances.

‘Temporary incapacity for work caused by isolation and illness related to COVID-19 is determined and managed in accordance with the epidemiological measures and guidelines recommended by the Croatian Institute for Public Health and the Civil Protection Headquarters, and cannot be considerably affected by audit. In January 2022, there were 11,303 recorded new cases of isolation or self-isolation due to COVID-19. We can say with certainty that the number is even higher in reality, but many who are isolating or self-isolating in agreement with their employers avail of the option of working from home, take vacation days or paid leave without exercising the right to request the TIW status, so the HZZO doesn’t have them in their records.

Regular audits of TIW leave are intended to monitor long-term TIWs and those TIWs that are determined to last too long given the medical diagnosis on which they are based’, stated HZZO and also brought up the fact that keeping the sick leave rate within the strategic parametres contributes to the rational spending of limited resources of the health care system.

Health Minister Vili Beroš recently again encouraged patients to report it if they cannot get hold of their GPs. Between November 2020 when the email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. was introduced and the end of January 2022, HZZO received a total of 2697 emails from the insured, 928 of which were determined to be justified complaints.

In 2021, they received 1682 complaints, and between January 1st 2022 and February 9th 2022 there were 457 complaints.

According to the HZZO, the majority of received complaints focused on inaccessibility of service, namely the inability of patients to establish timely contact with primary health care practitioners.

The way this is handled is the HZZO employees immediately look into the allegations listed in the complaints, get in touch with primary care clinics (by phone or e-mail), inform the doctor who supervises the team about the need for a call back to the insured person in question, and get back to the insured persons to inform them of the outcome, stated the HZZO.

The overworked doctors are not taking these accusations lightly. ‘If all clinics have a problem with inaccessibility, we obviously have a bug in the system’, commented Dr. Ivana Babić MD.

Dr. Potočki Rukavina agrees with her colleague. ‘The situation is absurd. If all 2,200 of us combined received a total of ten million calls and e-mails in the first three quarters of last year, I don't know if this is a question of unavailability as much as it’s a problem of over-availability! Always being available to this extent is a danger to our work. Is it possible to do comprehensive, quality work in the two or three minutes that you have for each patient?! And if you process 150 of them, you’ll most likely be unavailable for the 151st’, said the doctor.

February the 2nd, 2022 - There are many instances of people who are registered with a GP being unable to get hold of them after repeated attempts in numerous ways. Finally realising that this is an issue for people, a brand new HZZO email address has been launched for those types of situations.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, before deciding to team up together to try to tackle the issue of the vanishing GP, the Ministry of Health and HZZO (Croatian Health Insurance Institute) announced that they had been receiving more and more complaints from insured persons about the difficulties they were facing when it came to obtaining healthcare in the offices of their selected General Practitioners due to an inability to contact them in person, by phone, email or otherwise. 

Perhaps carrier pigeons hadn't yet been tried out by those in need of their GP's services, for which they or their employers pay every month, but we can wager a guess that this would also have failed. According to the Health Ministry, they received more than 3,000 patient reports on such matters, which is quite disappointing to say the least.

Due to the large number of complaints of this nature, HZZO has established a new email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to which insured persons can send their complaint.

The complaint sent to this new HZZO email address must state the individual's personal data (their name and surname, OIB and contact telephone number) and the name and surname of the selected doctor about whom the insured person is complaining.

Without the aforementioned data sent to the new HZZO email address, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute will not be able to do anything, ie get in touch with the doctor in question and/or help in the urgent resolution of whatever problem that the insured person has, they explained from HZZO.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.