PTS: the patient should be able to pay a co-pay for the National Health Fund visit
The Polish Dental Society has issued a special legal and medical position, in which it emphasizes that the patient should be able to receive an additional health care service (not reimbursed) during the visit, which is carried out by a doctor-dentist (provider) during the hours declared in the schedule reported to the National Health Fund, for an additional fee, of course.
As emphasized by mec. Natalia Krej, PTS legal counsel, the position issued is intended to help create awareness among dentists and initiate appropriate legislative changes.
– We approached our analysis in a very thorough manner. The problem is that in the Polish legal system there is no single, universal mechanism for financing health care services from public funds. Thus, on the one hand, the lack of such a mechanism, and on the other hand, the different legal nature of the existing solutions, their fragmentation and inconsistency cause numerous problems of interpretation, concerning both the nature of the legal relations that are the basis for financing health care services from public funds, and the application of individual solutions in practice – says mec. Krej.
Among the legal acts regulating the provision of health services to Polish citizens is m.In. Constitution of the Republic of Poland. It stipulates that regardless of the material situation of the citizen, the public authorities shall ensure equal access to publicly funded health care services, the conditions and scope of which are determined by law. – Art. 68 of the Constitution does not rule on the types and amount of fees for health care services. In particular, it does not exclude chargeability, partial chargeability or free of charge of individual services – adds Natalia Krej.
The Law on Patients' Rights indicates that the patient has the right to health services that meet the requirements of current medical knowledge. The Law on Publicly Funded Health Care Services assumes that the patient is obliged to pay only if he or she does not have the status of a beneficiary or is seeking services not covered by the treatment entity's contract with the National Health Fund. – The above allows us to conclude that the provision of treatment to the patient with a commercial dimension, is possible within the framework of the treatment initiated in the area of the so-called "treatment". benefits guaranteed by the National Health Fund – highlights mec. Krej.
PTS recommends the introduction of regulations that would allow a patient to provide an additional health service (not reimbursed) during a visit that is carried out by a provider during the hours declared in the schedule reported to the National Health Fund as the hours of patients receiving publicly funded health services.
The entire interview with mec. Natalia Krej and the content of the PTS position can be found here.
Can an individual medical practice employ dentists under contracts? This is one of the many issues that, when running a practice, it is worth consulting a lawyer. – There is a big legal mess in this field – says in an interview with Dentonet mec. Ewa Mazur-Pawlowska.
