Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has been notified by the Republican Fund for Health Insurance that the branch office of the Fund for Macva District, acting on the Commissioner's ruling, deleted personal data contained in medical documentation, which data had been collected without legal grounds.

Acting on the Commissioner's ruling, via the committee established for the purpose, the branch office for Macva District has in the course of September in 648 files separated certificates of the need to travel in connection with the use of health care services from medical documentation and then permanently destroyed selected specialist reports and hospital discharge lists.

The Commissioner has conducted the inspection in the branch office for Macva District of the Republican Fund for Health Insurance on the basis of complaints filed by the insurees. Even though there have been no such complaints with regard to other districts, or branch offices, the Commissioner put forward a warning to the Republican Fund for Health Insurance about the need to apply safeguards for personal data protection, i.e. prevention of processing of personal data without justified legal grounds and purpose. The Commissioner estimates that it is good that after the warning, the director of the Fund immediately issued instructions to all branch offices on how to act in the process of determining eligibility for reimbursement of transport costs where it is indicated that a certificate of the need to travel constitutes sufficient grounds for exercising the right, and that there are no valid legal grounds or purpose for requesting the beneficiary to supply medical documentation, and that this constitutes unlawful processing of personal data.