National report_Austria

E.A.N.A. Autumn Meeting 2012

30^th November/1^st December 2012, Paris

NATIONAL REPORT – AUSTRIA

1.      HEALTH REFORM

In Austria, the federal government, the states and the national insurances are planning a health care reform with major changes for the medical practice in hospitals and surgeries without involving patients and the medical chamber. This health care reform will substantially interfere with the principle of self-regulation of the medical profession, it is a massive government paternalism of doctors and patients, and will centralize the Austrian health system. In the future, the content and organization of health care will be determined by fiscal criteria. Savings are expected by introducing a federal budget for health, joint planning, financing and management of the health system. Spending on health will be bound to the average growth of the GDP. At the same time the health policy program of the Austrian Medical Chamber provides a socially balanced alternative based on transparent funding. The doctors and outpatient departments are to be paid from one source, inpatient hospital services are to be paid from another, separate source. The program of the Austrian Medical Chamber promotes the medical aspects and avoids political conflict. The basis of an optimal primary care is the repositioning of the general practitioner as a “trust doctor” as the first, immediate contact to the health care system. The trust doctor is supposed to treat his patients close to their home and across generations and to guide his patients through thecomplex health care system.

For November 21^h, 2012 the Austrian Medical Chamber has organized an extraordinary general assembly and also some protest activities for this day. Furthermore, an information campaign has been launched with press conferences being held in all provincial chambers and posters for waiting rooms in surgeries are given out to doctors to inform the public. In addition, advertisements in newspapers will appear to reach the public. Naturally, besides these activities the Austrian Medical Chamber is in close contact with political

2.      ELGA – ELECTRONIC HEALTH ACT

The electronic processing of health data, shortly named “ELGA”, represents a key issue of the current national healthcare policy. According to the ELGA law, the electronic processing of health data will be improved, there will be faster availability of medical information, the quality of diagnostic and therapeutic decisions will be increased and treatment and care of patients will also be improved. Furthermore, the ELGA law intends to increase the process and outcome of health services, as well as maintaining a balanced high-quality and an accessible health care. From the Austrian Medical Chamber’s point of view the ELGA law could be implemented on the condition that the fundamental rights are respected. For this purpose a comprehensive, robust and secure IT for ELGA must be developed, existing standards can be used best only to support individual components. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and the Austrian Medical Chamber have set up ad hoc groups for further discussions. Meanwhile, the Austrian Medical Chamber also launched an Austrian wide information and signature campaign, to allow patients to refuse ELGA. The ignorance among the population is huge, even politicians, seem to not have understood all aspects of this huge project. ELGA covers many facets of social life, although it will offer some benefits for the patients, the technology is still under development. The demands of the Austrian Medical Chamber when it comes to the implementation of ELGA are: ELGA must be voluntary and provide good user performance, data protection and data security must be maintained at a high level, financing must be secured and  pilot projects must be implemented.

Meanwhile the bill has passed the health committee in the Austrian Parliament and was forwarded to the plenary of the Parliament which passed the law on November 12^th 2012.

3.      NEW PRESIDENCY OF THE AUSTRIAN MEDICAL CHAMBER

On June 22nd 2012, on the occasion of its General Assembly in Bregenz, the Austrian Medical Chamber held presidential elections.  The president of the regional chamber of Tyrol, Dr. Artur Wechselberger, was elected as new president of the Austrian Medical Chamber for the period 2012 – 2017. Three Vice-Presidents were also elected: Dr. Karl Forstner, Dr. Harald Mayer, Dr. Johannes Steinhart.

Main goals of the new medical leadership are: making the medical profession more attractive, appropriate working conditions, reduction of bureaucracy and administrative workload for physicians. Other topics are the reform of medical education and training, health policy with the focus on high quality medical care and patient-oriented medical co-operations.