It was established by Act of the Sejm of 27 August 2004 on a proposal of Mariusz Lipinski, then the minister of health that there should be just one centralized government institution.

In 2015 its income was 69.8 billion Polish złoty and it employed the full-time equivalent of 5,184 people.

[1] It runs a ZIP system, where patients can see their treatment history and costs over the last 10 years.

It also authorizes the supply of medical devices, deals with complaints about healthcare providers and issues European Health Insurance Cards.

[2] In 2017 93% of the budget was allocated to hospitals with two-year contracts with the Fund which operate an emergency room.