What changes await patients? Modifications to health care will come into force in just a few days
At the beginning of March, several changes in the functioning of the health care system will come into force. They concern, among others, patients with chronic diseases, but also priority in access to medical services.
On February 12, the Journal of Laws published an amendment to the regulation of the Minister of Health on the scope of necessary information processed by healthcare providers, the detailed method of recording this information and its transfer to entities obliged to finance services from public funds. Therefore, changes in health care will come into force soon, from March 1, 2024. We explain what exactly they will involve and who they will apply to.
Changes in primary care for patients with chronic diseases
On March 1, 2024, changes in the area of health care will come into force. A new requirement will be introduced, namely the need to implement a new reporting method by Primary Health Care (POZ) facilities that provide services as part of coordinated care. According to the regulations, they will be obliged to provide codes of comorbidities indicating the patient's diagnosed chronic disease. This is intended to improve the settlement of services under coordinated care. In practice, this means that clinics will be obliged to provide patients receiving coordinated care with codes indicating comorbidities related to the main chronic disease. Until now, primary health care facilities were only obliged to provide information about the main chronic disease that was the reason for providing medical advice.
Who will get to the doctor without waiting in line? A new group of people
Another change concerns the possibility of using health care services out of order. It involves entering a new code that allows you to identify a new group of authorized persons. People who have been granted compensation for medical damage suffered while providing services financed from public funds in a hospital will be able to benefit from faster access to a doctor or examination (this decision must be final). This benefit is granted by the Medical Event Compensation Fund.
When providing data on the services provided, doctors are obliged to provide information on additional rights in the form of a code. Due to the introduction of a new group of people who are entitled to benefits out of turn, a new code entitling them to this will also come into force.
Changes in information about cancer
Modifications are also to come into force that will allow the National Health Fund to more effectively monitor the quality and effectiveness of oncological treatment. The idea is to expand the catalog of cases in which information about the code and stage of cancer is provided. One of the changes introduced by the amendment to the regulation is the expansion of the catalog of cases in which information on the stage of cancer advancement is provided. Compared to the existing regulations, these changes consist in specifying that information regarding the advancement of cancer should be provided after radical treatment, but only in the case of primary surgery or primary radiotherapy or radiochoemiotherapy (and not, as before, in the case of each procedure or each radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy).
In the justification for the amendment to the regulation, we also read that the change also involves “introducing the obligation to provide this information also in the event of initiating cancer treatment and in the event of a change in the previously determined advancement of cancer or a recurrence of cancer, if the change or recurrence occurred after radical treatment.” .
