Due to the long waiting times for appointments with statutory health insurers, patients are increasingly forced to consult their own doctor. They must first bear the costs themselves and then submit the invoice to their health insurer, so that they are reimbursed for at least part of the costs. This process will be simplified from 1 July.
Doctors are now legally obliged to submit the invoice for reimbursement online for patients if they so wish.
More service, faster processing
The Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) sees this as a “good story on the way to better service quality,” says CEO Bernhard Wurzer. For patients, electronic submission ensures faster processing, so that they can then get back 80 percent of the relevant health insurance rate. The aim is to reduce the value to two weeks. Currently, it is three to four, sometimes considerably more.
Dentists of choice are not included in the scheme. Further restriction: There will be a trivial limit on the annual turnover, under which doctors who only work sporadically do not have to worry about the billing system and the integration into their ordination software.
How high the limit will be has not yet been determined, but is still subject to negotiation with the medical association. If it were set at 15,000 euros, analogous to the cash obligation, more than 90 percent of all cases would be covered.
ELGA also for elective physicians
The new system does not require the use of the e-card with the doctor you have chosen. But here too – as decided last year – improvements will be implemented: from 1 January 2025, these will be linked to the e-card, and from then on, the use of the electronic patient file (ELGA) will also be specified for elective subjects. doctors.
Source: Krone
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