Without jargon
Healthcare speaks a language of its own. Here we explain the key terms used in our texts in a few sentences — for each entry we give the legal basis or a source and point to a text that covers the subject in more depth. Each entry keeps the Polish term, as it appears in Polish sources, with an English explanation.
Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System
AOTMiT is a state agency supervised by the Minister of Health. It sets the tariffs for healthcare services, which the National Health Fund (NFZ) transfers into its own orders once the minister has approved them, issues recommendations on their financing and collects pay data from facilities.
on-call duty: hospital work outside normal hours
On-call duty is work by a doctor or another medical employee of a hospital outside normal working hours, on site at the facility. It counts as working time and is paid like overtime, with a supplement of 50% or 100% of the rate (at night, on Sundays and public holidays). It is a different concept from standby “on the phone”.
employment contract
An etat is an employment contract under the Labour Code and, in healthcare facilities, also under the Act on medical activity. The law sets the lowest basic salary for each medical profession, and actual pay may be higher. Working time is limited: the standard is an average of 37 hours 55 minutes a week, and more with the written consent of a hospital employee (opt-out).
standby “on the phone”
Standby is time during which a hospital employee must be available and report when called; colloquially it is called on-call duty “on the phone”. For each hour of standby the employee receives half of the hourly rate of basic salary, and once called in, the work is settled like on-call duty.
Internet Patient Account
The Internet Patient Account (IKP) at pacjent.gov.pl shows, after logging in, among other things e-prescriptions, e-referrals and the services that facilities have billed to the NFZ under your PESEL number (national identification number). It lets you check whether the visits entered in the billing actually took place.
Diagnosis-Related Groups
JGP is the system in which the NFZ assigns each hospital stay to a group on the basis of diagnoses and the procedures performed. Each group has a value in points, which determines how much the hospital bills for the stay.
a rate per patient on a primary care doctor’s list
Capitation is a way of paying in primary healthcare (POZ): the NFZ pays a fixed annual rate for each patient registered on a doctor’s list, regardless of the number of visits. The rate is multiplied by a coefficient that depends on the patient’s age. Apart from capitation, primary care receives separate payments, e.g. for coordinated care.
pay chimney; the “chimney act” (ustawa kominowa)
A pay chimney is the pay of one person that is clearly higher than the pay of everyone else. The so-called chimney act limits the salary of the head of an independent public hospital to six times the average wage, but does not cover doctors working under contracts.
civil-law contract (B2B or contract of mandate)
A contract (kontrakt) is a civil-law contract, not an employment contract: the doctor runs a business (B2B) and invoices the facility, or works under a contract of mandate. The rate is agreed by the parties, and the working-time limits for employees do not apply to it. Nobody publishes the total amount one person receives under contracts with several facilities.
with a licence to practise, practising, working with patients
Doctors are counted in three ways: everyone with a licence to practise (including those not working in the profession), those who practise according to the medical chamber’s register, and those who, according to Statistics Poland (GUS), work directly with patients. These figures differ in definition and reference date, so we do not combine them in one calculation.
services above the plan in the contract with the NFZ
Overperformance means services provided above the plan or limit in a facility’s contract with the NFZ. The Fund does not always pay for them in full: it pays, among other things, for saving lives in an emergency, and in the hospital network overperformance counts only partly when the next lump sum is set.
National Health Fund
The National Health Fund is the state payer that signs contracts with facilities and pays them for treating patients. The health contribution is collected by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS), which then pass it on to the Fund; in addition to the contribution, the Fund receives, among other things, subsidies from the state budget.
Supreme Medical Chamber and Central Register of Doctors
The Supreme Medical Chamber (NIL) is the professional self-government of doctors and dentists. It keeps the Central Register of Doctors (CRL), a database of people with a licence to practise; our figures on the medical workforce come from its statistics.
consent to longer working time
The opt-out is the written consent of a hospital’s medical employee to work on average more than 48 hours a week in a settlement period (of up to 4 months). In practice the upper limit is about 78 hours a week, because the employee must be guaranteed rest. It applies to employment contracts, and the provision is due to expire on 1 January 2028.
a permanent identifier instead of a name
Pseudonymisation means replacing a name with a permanent code. The same person always has the same code, so their payments from many facilities can be added up, but without an additional key it is not known who they are. It is not anonymisation: such data are still personal data.
licence to practise
The licence to practise (PWZ) is the authorisation to treat patients that a regional medical council grants to a doctor; it has a unique seven-digit number, visible in the register of doctors. Since 5 August 2026 the Minister of Health can require facilities to provide pay data marked with the PESEL number and the PWZ number, and our demand is the publication of the total payments to each person under a permanent identifier, without names.
a mode of specialist training
Residency is a mode of specialist training in which the doctor works under an employment contract at the facility providing the training. The basic salary is financed from the state budget by the Minister of Health and paid by the facility. Its level is set by a regulation and depends on the field and on whether the doctor is in the first two years of training.
the amount for a network hospital for a settlement period
The lump sum is the amount the NFZ pays a hospital in the hospital network for the whole settlement period, instead of paying separately for each stay. Its level depends, among other things, on how many services, and of what kind, the hospital reported in the previous period.
system of basic hospital provision (PSZ)
The hospital network, i.e. the system of basic hospital provision, is a group of hospitals qualified for four years for stable lump-sum financing. It covers, among other things, inpatient treatment, hospital outpatient clinics and rehabilitation.
working in several facilities at once
Holding multiple jobs means one person working in several facilities at the same time: as an employee, under a contract or under a contract of mandate. Each facility knows only its own share of the hours and payments. Since August 2026 the Minister of Health can collect data from which they can be added up, but does not publish them.
The definitions describe terms; they do not judge them. Amounts and rates that change every year are given in the texts linked under “More”. Missing a term or spotted an error? Write to kontakt@zarobkilekarzy.pl.