The text is not final. Negotiations were still under way in September 2026, and the announced budget is fixed. This page will be updated at each stage.
What we know
The points below come from public sources: patient associations, the press and professional communications. The INAMI concept note itself has not been made public.
- A target date: the Minister of Health is pushing for an agreement on 1 January 2027.
- Home diagnosis becomes the rule: home respiratory polygraphy would be the default test. The targets cited are 45% of tests at home within three years, then 70 to 80% in the long term. In-centre polysomnography remains reserved for complex cases.
- Centres can subcontract home diagnosis to approved private companies.
- The GP comes into play: they could prescribe tests and follow up stable patients after the first year of treatment. The dentist takes on this role for mandibular advancement devices.
- The pulmonologist stays in charge: coordination and final responsibility remain with the sleep specialist.
- Equipment remains managed by the centre or by the private company.
As a reminder, since 1 January 2025, GPs have already been able to renew the prescription for a CPAP device or a mandibular advancement device.
What remains open
Several questions determine how a department will be organised in practice. They do not yet have a public answer:
- Who submits the approval request to the health insurance fund: the centre or the GP?
- Will requests go through an electronic channel such as MyCareNet?
- Who holds and transmits device compliance data?
- What transition period will apply to patients already covered by the agreement?
- Which new forms will replace the current annex?
What this changes for a sleep department
Hundreds of patients changing follow-up
The press mentions around 2,000 stable patients per institution due to move to follow-up by their GP. For a department, this means knowing at all times who follows which patient, and since when.
More parties around the same patient
GP, dentist, home diagnosis company: information will have to flow between more parties. In Belgium, these exchanges go through the secure channels of the eHealth network and the regional health data vaults, not through spreadsheets sent by email.
The centre remains the coordination point
Because the pulmonologist keeps final responsibility, it is the sleep department that will need to keep an overview of approvals, expiry dates and equipment. A reliable tracking tool becomes more useful, not less.
How PneumoTrack is preparing
We are following the text closely. Three workstreams are planned so that we are ready, whatever the final text:
- Dated rules: calculation rules will be linked to their period of validity, so that patients under the old and the new agreement can coexist without errors.
- New parties: the GP, the dentist and the home diagnosis company will have their place in the patient record.
- Documents ready to share: follow-up reports will be generated in a format that can be sent through the secure channels your hospital already uses.
If your department wants to influence these choices, become a pilot centre.
Sources
- ApneuVereniging Vlaanderen, webinar on the new agreement (29 September 2026)
- ApneuVereniging Vlaanderen, INAMI concept note and stakeholder consultation
- La DH, “L’imbroglio belge autour du diagnostic de l’apnée du sommeil” (25 April 2026)
- NVTS, the INAMI agreement 2.0 and the role of the dentist
- INAMI, contribution to the cost of sleep apnoea treatment