In this context, it must become less attractive for doctors to go to the doctor’s practice, he said on Wednesday in the discussion series “Klartext” on ORF radio Ö1. According to the minister, “access must be possible for patients with an e-card, not with a credit card”.
Lid on billing?
Rauch can imagine, for example, putting a lid on the billing or obliging the doctors of choice to bill the health insurance portion of the treatment electronically. The minister also has in mind the obligation to use the ELGA electronic health record and diagnostic coding. Turning off the activity as a doctor of choice (where patients often only get a small part of the fee back from the health insurance company) and only allowing panel doctors or purely private doctors, as panel official Andreas Huss had suggested, he considered unfeasible.
For Vienna’s City Councilor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ), it would also be conceivable to oblige every doctor who opens a practice to take on patients with statutory health insurance. Framework conditions are needed in which the doctors are aware that they are part of the care system. He doesn’t give a damn about the exact form in which this is implemented. Hacker brushed aside the objection raised by Bernhard Wurzer, Director General of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), that only 6 percent of the health insurance fund’s fees go to doctors of choice. “You bill so little that some of the patients don’t give a damn about billing you,” he objected. Hacker once again insisted on the demand of the federal states to introduce another federal funding channel for the overburdened outpatient departments of the hospitals.
Other goals for financial equalization
In addition to “restricting the practice of private practice,” Rauch also named other goals for financial equalization. Overall, more money is needed in the healthcare system, especially for the resident sector and care. And the medical-technical professions also need to be upgraded so that they can carry out activities that are currently reserved for doctors. “You can take my word for it,” he told Karoline Riedler from the Austrian Health and Nursing Association (ÖGKV), who had requested this.
