Primary care physicians, who are affiliated with the Zielonogórskie Alliance Federation, are opposed to the recommendations contained in the published report of the Prescription and Fulfillment Team. Despite the team's twelve-month effort to streamline the prescription system, they say, the document lacks key changes, such as the automatic determination of drug reimbursement levels, which were supposed to reduce bureaucracy. In addition, experts point out that patients could lose access to reimbursement due to errors resulting from a more complicated system.
PCPs oppose recommendations of prescription report
Published Oct. 28, 2024 09:46
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The main objection raised by doctors is that the proposed changes will not only fail to simplify work, but will actually lengthen it. Experts from the Federation Zielonogórski Porozumienie Zielonogórskie stress that the new solutions will introduce additional tasks, such as filling out questionnaires, which will take up doctors' time spent treating patients.
- The report proposes a system in which a doctor, after writing a prescription, must answer a series of questions, based on which the system will determine the level of payment for the drug. Meanwhile, we expected this process to be automated, without involving the doctor. Unfortunately, the team was not up to the task," says Tomasz Zieliński, vice president of the FPZ. - Primary care physicians are the group that writes the most prescriptions in the Polish health care system, accounting for more than 90 percent of prescriptions in outpatient treatment.
- Family doctors are the ones who bear the responsibility for any prescribing errors, and are often penalized financially for incorrectly written prescriptions. The report does not change this state of affairs - the responsibility for reimbursements still rests with physicians, even though we expected it to be transferred to an automated system, adds Marek Twardowski, vice president of the FPZ.
The medical community has repeatedly stressed the need for solutions that would speed up the prescription process and minimize doctors' liability for administrative errors. Doctors hoped that the reimbursement system would be automated and that reimbursement decisions would be made by the database of the Ministry of Health or the National Health Service, without the need for additional steps on the doctor's side.
- The report does not meet these expectations. Instead of automation, we have more bureaucracy. This type of solution will not only fail to improve our work, but could lengthen patients' queues and deprive them of discounts, Twardowski stresses. - What's more, doctors point out that the new regulations could cause delays in prescriptions, which could have negative consequences for patients who require regular medication.
Doctors also criticize the fact that the National Health Fund does not inform them of possible prescription errors, sometimes causing them to be unaware for many years that the patient's reimbursement is not due. Which often results in financial penalties that are imposed after a long period and are gigantic. In the last 10 years, the fines imposed on doctors in POZ amounted to PLN 49,088,970.14, in AOS PLN 8,783,010.61, and in hospitals PLN 3,274,928.66.
- We have raised the need for the National Health Service to inform us of errors as soon as possible so that we can fix them without any sanctions. Unfortunately, our appeals have had no effect," adds Zielinski.
The Federation of the Zielonogórskie Alliance concludes that the prescription team's report has not met the expectations of the medical community. Doctors are demanding changes that will allow them to focus on treating patients instead of getting involved in complicated bureaucratic processes. Instead of the expected automation and simplification of the reimbursement system, the proposed solutions only complicate procedures and make daily work more difficult, so they hope that their voice will finally be heard and the necessary changes to the system will be implemented to ensure that patients have quick and easy access to reimbursed drugs, without unnecessary paperwork and the risk of penalties for doctors.
Source: press release
