According to the Dôvera health insurance company, the legislative changes in prescribing e-prescriptions are a step back in the availability of health care. According to her, the changes will negatively affect patients, doctors and the entire healthcare system. This was stated by the PR manager of Dôvera insurance company Branislav Cehlárik for TASR.
“We regret that this situation has arisen, even though we did not cause it. It is appropriate to ask the members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic why they approved such a law. It shows the chaos in which laws are approved in Slovakia,” noted Cehlárik.
He added that the situation will not benefit the patient in any way. “On the contrary, it will harm the patients, because they will have to go to the doctor unnecessarily. It will harm the doctor, because it will burden him unnecessarily, and it will also harm the system, because it will cost more money,” he explained.
Cehlárik explained that over the past year, 450,000 medicines were prescribed to the insured persons of the Trust by non-contracted doctors. As he added, up to 3.1 million medicines were prescribed on paper prescriptions, which were not covered by public health insurance. Most of them are prescribed by general practitioners for adults, namely 46 percent of the total number. Specialists make up 30 percent, pediatricians 16 percent and gynecologists five percent.
Cehlárik clarified that the changes concern several medicines. He specified that Dóvery policyholders most often electronically prescribe the medicine Uniflox 0.3%. They are followed by Erdomed 300 mg, Pamycon for the preparation of drops, Detralex, Trifed or Tebokan 120 mg.
An amendment to the Act on the National Health Information System entered into force in January. For some medicines, the possibility of issuing an e-prescription has disappeared. These are, for example, medicines fully paid for by the patient.
The Ministry of Health explained that with regard to the technical-legislative necessity of the adjustment, it was necessary to respect the law of the European Union regarding the protection of personal data in connection with the electronic prescription service (eRecept). It declared that it was dealing with the situation to reduce the impact on the public as soon as possible.
