Even outpatient specialists will not close their surgeries on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, as agreed with the Ministry of Health (MZd) and health insurance companies. Minister Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) and chairman of the Association of Outpatient Specialists Zorjan Jojko confirmed this to journalists today after a week of negotiations. The general practitioners, who originally went on strike to protest against the too low increase in reimbursements for care for the next year, called it off a week ago after the reimbursements were increased.
“We are now finalizing the final form of the agreement. It will be signed with the directors of health insurance companies in the second half of next week,” Válek said. So far, according to him, four insurance companies, which have 88 percent of the insured, have joined the agreement, but the minister wants to convince the other three as well. There are approximately 7,000 specialist doctors’ offices in the Czech Republic, and approximately 43 billion crowns are reserved for their care next year.
Jojko called the insurance company’s promise a compromise. “Our original ideas were a little bigger in terms of financial fulfillment,” he said.
When asked by ČTK, Válek added that the reimbursement decree will not be changed, the insurance companies will take the money from other funds. But he did not want to specify the amount. “We talked about the framework and rules under which the amount will be distributed,” he added. Details will be part of the deal next week.
Money from public health insurance should be distributed on the basis of an agreement between health insurance companies and representatives of individual fields of health care. If they do not reach an agreement, the Ministry of Health determines the amount of reimbursement by decree. It must be published in the Collection of Documents by the end of October.
According to the last one proposal after the ministry gave way to the demands of general practitioners, out of 515 billion crowns for health care next year, 31 billion crowns are planned for general practitioners, 3.3 percent more than this year. For outpatient specialists, 43.8 billion crowns are calculated, which is 4.6 percent more year-on-year. Based on today’s agreement, the insurance companies will add to them, but it is not yet clear how much.
In addition, the ministry took hundreds of millions of crowns from practitioners from the central medicines chapter, for which 40 billion crowns are reserved. It has been criticized by the Association of the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry or patient organizations, concerned about the availability of this treatment for patients. In the case of increases for ambulatory specialists, no money will be transferred under the decree according to Válk.
The reimbursement decree for next year is also criticized by the segment of medical laboratories or home care. Everyone is particularly bothered by the fact that their payments are not growing as quickly as in previous years. According to the Association of Czech and Moravian Hospitals, which brings together smaller medical facilities, payments to hospitals will even decrease, which they consider unconstitutional based on earlier decisions of the Constitutional Court.
Source: www.tyden.cz
