More than 30 entities that bring together doctors of different specialties announced that they will begin to charge a co-payment or additional bonus for treating prepaid and social work patientsand that They will adjust every two months.
“Today, doctors say enough! Stop imposing an unworthy value for our fees, stop delays in payments, stop unjustified debits, and stop not having control over the value of our work,” they warned.
This additional fee, which will represent an extra headache for millions of Argentines, could have a floor of 6,000 pesos per consultation.
The decision was communicated by more than 30 medical societies and federations of different specialties throughout the country.
they call it “non-refundable complementary bonus”which patients must pay so that professionals can reach the floor of 6,000 pesos per consultation that, according to them, they would not be reaching.
They made the announcement through a statement framed on “Health Day.”
“This September 21, the doctors of the Argentine Republic have no reason to celebrate. We are going through a sad reality: a crisis that has brought medical fees to the lowest level in history,” they warned.
“The medical consultation is a fundamental act in which we attend to the needs of our patients, diagnose diseases and work on their recovery. It is also the act through which we receive a professional fee that allows us to live with dignity,” the document continues.
They said that “traditionally, this service was valued by health funders, but we have never had the ability to set its value ourselves. We were never able to determine how much we should receive for this work and when we should receive it.”
They warned that “in recent years, the value of medical consultations has experienced a drastic drop, ranking as one of the lowest in the region.”
They assure that to this was added “the delay in the payment of fees between two and six months”, which, they warn, is “unsustainable for health professionals with the existing high inflationary level.”
They said that “from this moment on the price of the service, the value of our fees will be in the hands of the doctors themselves, through our associations, chambers, councils, federations and medical societies that represent us.”
They explained that to continue maintaining quality and excellence in care, they will implement from now on, a “minimum ethical value of medical consultation, and the ‘minimum ethical medical fee’ that we have arrived at to maintain a decent federal tariff floor is of 6,000 pesos”.
“The difference between what we receive from the system (managers, social works, prepayments, sanatoriums, clinics) as the consultation value and said ‘minimum ethical medical fee’, must be paid by the patient at the consultation,” they noted.
This value, they anticipated, “will be adjustable bimonthly with the inflation index throughout the national territory as a reference.”
“It is not a coinsurance. It is not an additional. It is not a copayment. This difference is a non-refundable complementary bonus,” they said, which suggests that they do not intend to bill it either.
The text has the endorsements of 33 entities, such as the Argentine Association of Surgery, the Argentine Association of Orthopedics and Traumatology, the Argentine Society of Cardiology, the Argentine Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Societies, the Argentine Society of Urology and the Argentine Association of Clinical Oncology.
In addition, six other entities, including the Argentine Council of Ophthalmology and the Argentine Federation of Cardiology, expressed their support.
Source: Ambito
