The Medical Association is in favor of the return of an outpatient fee – and in a particularly high form. Harald Mayer, second vice president of the ÖAK and chairman of the Federal Curia for employed doctors, calls for “full reimbursement of costs” in the “Presse” – without exception, provided that the patients do not stick to a specified “path”. This essentially provides that you can only visit an outpatient clinic after a referral or in an emergency.
According to Mayer, anyone who cannot produce a corresponding letter from a family doctor or specialist or the health hotline should pay all costs incurred for examinations and treatments in a hospital outpatient clinic themselves and without a cap. So even if the costs amount to several thousand euros, which would not be uncommon. “Because then the patients will never come back without a referral,” says the Vice President of the Medical Association to the “Presse”.
At the same time, expansion of the established area is necessary
Mayer now wants to ensure that his demand is brought up in the current financial equalization negotiations and implemented with the help of the Ministry of Health, the federal states and social security. So that “in the end it is regulated by law that nobody who is not an emergency may enter a hospital outpatient clinic without a doctor’s referral”. At the same time, however, there is a need for expansion in the private sector.
Medical Association President Johannes Steinhart, who is currently pausing due to illness, spoke out against an outpatient fee just a few weeks ago, as had already been tried under Black and Blue.
