NIL: NFZ punished doctors despite acting in accordance with medical indications

The imposition of financial penalties on doctors by the NFZ has stirred up a lot of controversy, and the Supreme Medical Chamber has taken a number of activities since the beginning of the case to support the aggrieved doctors and prove that they acted solely for the benefit of patients. Among other things, a number of meetings were held between the penalized doctors and the NFZ and the Ministry of Health. (...)

The NIL's actions sparked a media discussion, and the issue of penalties for prescribing milk replacers was addressed during a special debate in the Polish Senate, where key demands were presented advocating, among other things, a substantive reassessment of medical recommendations for continuing treatment of allergic children with milk replacers not covered by reimbursement indications, an assessment of the way in which the NFZ conducts inspections, and a complete exemption of doctors from the obligation to determine the level of reimbursement for drugs and special medical purposes.

For the aforementioned analysis about the existence of medical indications for prescribing milk replacers in selected cases, which was also requested by the Ministry of Health and the NFZ, the NRL appointed a special expert team. It included authorities from various medical fields and from different parts of the country, including representatives of scientific societies. The team has just completed its work and voted on each doctor sanctioned on the basis of the documentation provided. In all cases, a unanimous positive opinion was given, confirming that the doctors' actions were medically justified. The results of the team's work were presented at the next meeting of the Presidium of the NRL, and will be forwarded to the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund.

- The Medical Council is the place to judge on the merits whether doctors acted in accordance with medical knowledge and in the best interests of their patients. There is no longer any doubt that doctors saved their patients, and they should be thanked for that, not punished. I am grateful to everyone involved in this extremely sensitive, but very important issue for the entire medical community. The fact that we were able to assemble a team of specialists and evaluate the conduct of our Colleagues is a huge success, and I hope that the decision-makers will immediately take appropriate steps to compensate those who have been wrongly punished. All our actions confirm that the reimbursement system is imperfect and needs to be updated and, in my opinion, automated. The unnecessary obligation of doctors to determine the level of reimbursement should finally be lifted," comments NRL President Lukasz Jankowski.

Source: NIL