Million pensions for prosecutors as a legacy of MSEC and new realities of assessment for veterans

While the country discusses the high-profile cases of millionaire prosecutors who have been receiving disability payments for years without leaving their offices, the Ministry of Health emphasizes that most disability decisions were made under the old MSEC system, not the new assessment model. 

Today Ukrainians are getting acquainted with a new mechanism — the assessment of a person's everyday functioning (OPFO), introduced instead of MSEC from January 1, 2025. The reform aims to make the system fairer, although the transition period has intensified discussions about social equality.

The case of millionaire prosecutors 

"Elite disability" of officials receiving significant pension payments has triggered public discontent. Cases where officials receive over 1 million hryvnias in disability pension payments while ignoring calls for repeated examinations are, to say the least, outraging. 

Analysis of disciplinary proceedings regarding prosecutors shows a gap between status and actual health condition. Some officials have been paid over a million hryvnias in disability pensions over several years.

Interestingly, their physical capability contradicts the diagnosis. A person with Group II disability, which implies significant life activity limitations, was able to cross the border 73 times within two years.

In cases where the state initiated verification of the validity of MSEC decisions, officials began avoiding receiving summons letters via messengers and mail, as well as refusing to sign acknowledgments of document receipt.

Instead of dismissal, the Disciplinary Commission often limits itself to banning promotions for a year. This creates a sense of impunity and tolerance of corruption risks.

However, the Ministry of Health stresses that establishing legal responsibility for such abuses is beyond its authority.

The issue of pension assignment and payment falls exclusively within the competence of pension authorities. The role of the Ministry of Health and the Functional Status Assessment Center today is to provide the medical-expert component — in particular, verifying the validity of the decisions themselves.

Real barriers: what has changed in the patient’s route?

Despite widespread concerns, the path to disability determination has been significantly simplified. As part of the reform, the stage of referral approval by the Medical Consultative Commission (LKK) was completely abolished. Now the referral algorithm for OPFO looks like this:

1. The attending physician independently creates an electronic referral in the system.
2. For servicemen in certain cases, the referral can be created directly by the head of the Military Medical Commission, which avoids additional visits to civilian doctors. Therefore, presenting LKK as a mandatory participant in the OPFO route is incorrect and may mislead patients.

The assessment is conducted using an electronic system that ensures centralized case accounting and records every stage. Although paper documents may remain part of a person’s primary medical documentation, the OPF procedure itself is digital.

New OPFO system

After the liquidation of MSEC, the authorities presented the reform of the assessment of everyday functioning (OPFO) as a step toward a more transparent and convenient disability determination system. 

The main change was the abandonment of MSEC. Now decisions on disability establishment and functional loss assessment are made by multidisciplinary expert teams operating within designated medical institutions.

The referral mechanism was also simplified. For civilians, the attending physician gained the right to independently create an electronic referral to the system without prior approval by the Medical Consultative Commission. This should eliminate one of the most common patient complaints — delays at the referral stage.

Another innovation is the possibility of undergoing assessment in various formats. Depending on health status and case circumstances, there is in-person, remote, or telemedicine assessment, which is especially relevant for people with severe illnesses, persons with disabilities, and residents of regions with limited access to medical facilities.

However, despite declared digitalization and simplification of procedures, problems remain. In particular, representatives of the public sector and anti-corruption organizations emphasize that risks of subjective decision-making have not completely disappeared. If previously the main complaints concerned MSEC activities, now the discussion has shifted to the mechanisms of forming expert teams and assessment criteria.

Disability acquisition procedure

The new system aims to simplify the patient’s path and make it as digital as possible.

Visiting a doctor 

You need to contact your attending physician (a narrow specialist according to the disease profile) or a family doctor. The doctor assesses the health condition, conducts necessary examinations, and if grounds exist, creates an electronic referral for assessment.

For servicemen: The referral can be created either by the attending physician or the head of the Military Medical Commission.

Preparing the document package 

You will need the following documents:

• Passport and Tax Identification Number (RNOCPP).
• Military registration document (if available).
• Medical documents confirming the diagnosis and current health status.
• Documents certifying the causes of disability.

Choosing the form of assessment 

Together with the doctor, you can choose a convenient healthcare institution for the assessment. The referral also specifies the form of assessment according to the patient’s condition, medical documents, and criteria defined by the resolution. There are currently four such forms:

• In-person or absentee.
• Remotely (via telemedicine).
• By a mobile team (if the health condition does not allow movement).

Automatic appointment of date 

The institution’s administrator checks the documents, after which the system automatically sets the date and time of the assessment, and the patient receives a notification with the date, time, and form of assessment. The expert team gains access to the case only on the day of assessment, which should reduce corruption risks.

Decision making 

The expert team must review the case within no more than 30 days. If additional examinations are needed, the team can schedule them only once to avoid delays. In case of a positive decision, you receive a conclusion and an individual rehabilitation program (IRP).

Tips for overcoming barriers

For effective interaction with the new system, patients should know:

• The expert team is obliged to review the case within no more than 30 days.

Tip: When creating a referral, the doctor sees queues in the system and can direct the case to a team with less workload. At the patient’s request, a copy of the referral for assessment can be requested. The case status can be found out from the institution’s administrator with the expert team or the attending physician. Administrator contacts are available on the Ministry of Health website. 

Together, these tools form a more formalized and digitized assessment system where deadlines, procedural discipline, and correctly chosen procedure format are key.

Disability status grants access to:

• Pensions (from 50% to 100% of age pension depending on the group).
• Free medicines (or 50% discount) by prescription.
• Preferential transport and priority service at ticket offices.
• Free rehabilitation aids (prostheses, wheelchairs, etc.).

Important: All documents (certificates, IRPs) issued by MSEC until the end of 2024 remain valid and do not require immediate replacement unless their validity period has expired.

Updated 15.06.2026

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