False start for the new price list from the performance specialist outpatient and prosthetic. Italian private health associations report serious cases inconvenience: updating the computer systems in a very short time it became impracticable, causing malfunctions in many Regions, with difficulties in booking tests and visits.
The new tariff was published in the Official Journal on 27 December 2024 and introduced 1,113 new entries with complex codes and procedures, but the mess in the start of the new course has aggravated the already very difficult situation of the Healthcare system.
The associations ask for the suspension definitive of the decree and a adjustment from the reimbursement ratesconsidered unsustainable. There decision definitive is expected for January 28th.
Associations against the new tariff
“Currently the health IT systems of many Italian regions are in haywire,” he reported toHandle the National Union of Clinics, Polyclinics, Institutions and Accredited Private Hospitals (Uap), together with Anisap (National Federation of Regional or Interregional Associations of Private Outpatient Healthcare Institutions) and Aiop (Italian Association of Private Hospitals).
The decision with which the Lazio Regional Administrative Court had suspended the new tariff for treatments and services guaranteed to citizens by the National Health Service has been revoked free or upon payment of a ticket. The request for revocation of the Tariff Decree was filed by the State Attorney’s Office on behalf of the Ministry of Health.
Old codes reintroduced
And after the revocation, the tilt of the systems Of reservationoverwhelmed by requests. In practice, the Regions were caught by surprise by the TAR’s decision, after they had already adapted their IT systems with the new health service codes. The TAR’s decision forced the Ministry of Health to return the old codes to book visits and exams.
The final ruling from the administrative justice system will arrive only at the end of January. Meanwhile, the hot potato to manage has passed into the hands of the healthcare facilities, already under pressure due to the flight of doctors and nurses. And the waiting lists, in the meantime, are getting even longer.
Uap, which represents 27,000 laboratories and clinics from North to South, complains about the lack of technical time to adapt the IT systems.
“The Ministry of Health declared that it acted to protect citizens, claiming that the Regions have already updated the systems with the codes of the new tariff and the doctors’ prescriptions are already different”, writes the association. And instead, it is reported, “it is clearly impracticable to update the health IT system at a national level in the short space of 2 or 3 days, especially close to the New Year, and the operators find themselves in conditions of breathlessness And chaos“.
Problems in booking tests and visits, in many cases, have also been reported by general practitioners.
The private healthcare organizations had already presented the appeal to the TAR, which had led to the suspension of the decree on the new Tariff, which was then revoked.
The issue of reimbursements to structures
Today they ask that the decree now be definitively suspended during the Council Chamber scheduled for January 28th. The other request is that the reimbursement rates to the facilities for the services be adjusted, because they are judged to be “too low and therefore unsustainable”. Operators have reported a cut in reimbursements of up to 70%, which would put the affiliated healthcare sector in crisis.
