NÄE ry, a non-profit organisation promoting eye health, is concerned about the impact of today’s government decision to increase the Kela reimbursement rates. “When the higher Kela reimbursement can be used by any healthy-eyed person to obtain a new prescription for glasses from an ophthalmologist, the losers will be eye patients, whose already illegally long treatment queues will only get worse,” warns NÄE ry’s CEO Panu Tast. Tast also has a solution: “We must now simultaneously implement the removing of Article 16 of the Decree of Health Care Professionals, as the government has wisely decided in the past.” Article 16 forces all healthy-eyed people to become clients of ophthalmologists, if they have ever had an operation on their eyes.
The government today announced a major reform of Kela reimbursements. Although the Finnish Association for Vision and Eye Health NÄE ry, supports the government’s major policy, there is also a major problem with it, especially from the point of view of eye health.
“It’s great that the government wants to target Kela reimbursements more on those doctor`s appointments that are less well provided by public health care. The increase to EUR 70 also applies to ophthalmologists, which is in principle very welcome,” says Panu Tast, CEO of NÄE ry.
“The government is on the right track, but the position of people suffering from eye diseases is in danger of deteriorating by the change. When the higher Kela reimbursement can be used by any healthy-eyed person to obtain a new prescription for glasses from an ophthalmologist, the losers will be eye patients, whose already illegally long waiting lists for treatment will only get worse. The focus should definitely be on bringing the cutting-edge expertise of ophthalmology specialists to the service of eye care. As such, the increase will bring more healthy-eyed people to ophthalmologists.”
Remove Article 16 – refer healthy-eyed people to opticians
Up to 150,000 people with healthy eyes, but who have previously undergone eye surgery – even if only a minor refractive error – visit an ophthalmologist every year without a valid medical reason. This is forced by Article 16 of the Decree of Health Care Professionals, which the government already decided to remove in last spring’s spending limits session debate. This should now be done as a matter of urgency, because the situation created by the unnecessary visits to ophthalmologists caused by Article 16, which is detrimental to the care of eye patients, is in danger of getting worse as the increase in the Kela reimbursement increases the demand for services even further.
“We must now simultaneously implement the abolition of Article 16 of the Decree of Health Care Professionals, as the government has wisely decided in the past. If this decision is implemented at the same time as the Kela reimbursement reform, the illegally long waiting lists for ophthalmology treatment could finally be dismantled in a sustainable way. The expertise of optometrists, who have a limited right to prescribe medicines, has expanded considerably over the decades, and Finnish optometric training is internationally accredited and allows them to work without similar restrictions in other Nordic countries, for example. The removal of Article 16 would now bring that competence into active use in Finland as well,” underlines Mr Tast.
Mr Tast also points out that the expert study preceding the government’s spring framework decision was almost unanimously in favour of abolishing Article 16. Tast points out that the use of the high-quality expertise of optometrists would immediately and significantly ease the burden on ophthalmology specialist services.
“Finland’s current eye care system is inefficient, as an expert study concluded in the spring. It is now worth being vigilant to ensure that well-intentioned reform does not worsen the situation. Merely increasing the Kela reimbursement will only lead from bad to worse,” says Mr Tast.
Link to repost: “A productivity perspective on the organisation of eye care” (in Finnish)
More information:
Panu Tast
CEO, The Finnish Association for Vision and Eye Health NÄE
029 3000 901, panu.tast@naery.fi
