Seville, (EFE).- The Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía (BOJA) has published this Thursday the order of the Ministry of Health and Consumption of the rates of the agreements and concerts with public and private entities to provide health care, including for the first time primary care services.
The order, of February 23, 2023, updates and develops the budgeting and pricing system for agreements and concerts signed by the Andalusian Health Service for the provision of healthcare in healthcare centers, which will come into force this Friday, March 3 , the day after its publication in the BOJA.
The draft of the order, approved in July 2022 and whose appeals process lasted until August, generated great controversy in the last month due to criticism from the Andalusian left-wing parties -PSOE, Por Andalucía and Adelante. Andalusia- and some unions, who denounce that this order seeks to “privatize” the health system.
The new order, consulted by EFE, allows doctors from private clinics to care for patients in public hospitals and carry out tests and operations arranged by the Board itself -a practice that is carried out in other communities-, and the inclusion for the first time of primary care in the portfolio of services derived from private healthcare.
The Andalusian government has defended itself against this accusation and after assuring that Andalusian healthcare will not be privatized, has accused the opposition parties of launching “unfounded accusations” to try to “confuse public opinion” due to the proximity of the municipal elections on May 28.
Privatization, an unfounded accusation
The annex to the order includes a block of surgical procedures that could be the subject of concerts, as well as another for diagnostic tests, another for hospital stays and another for consultations, where maximum rates of 65 euros are set for primary care consultations; 150 euros for first consultations; 90 euros for successive consultations, and 215 euros for “high resolution” consultations.
The maximum rates in Andalusia for health “correspond to consultations made at the facilities of the winning companies” and if the service is not provided at said facilities “the maximum rate will be reduced to 35%”.
The highest rates in Andalusia for health in the block of surgical procedures are “sex transformation operations not classified under other concepts” such as colovaginoplasties, with a cost of 31,900 euros-; phalloplasties -28,600 euros-, and vaginoplasties – a maximum of 22,900 euros-, while the lowest are excisions in the mouth, with 167 euros- surgical intervention.
For diagnostic procedures, the rates range from 31.8 euros for certain ultrasound scans to 1,749 euros for a PET-CT Fluor PSMA (Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen), while a maximum price of 215 euros per day is set. for hospitalization in the ward agreed upon for stays of one to seven days, 150 euros per day from eight to 30 days, and 125 euros for stays of more than 30 days.
Homogeneous maximum rate in Andalusia
Radiotherapy and proton therapy procedures have maximum amounts that range between 42,000 euros for a complete pediatric proton therapy treatment with anesthesia, and the 3,000 euros that it would cost to arrange a complete radiotherapy treatment without admission.
The Ministry justifies the order in which “it is convenient to establish a homogeneous maximum rate for all of Andalusia, by procedure and not by groups, as up to now”, which will translate into a reduction in the cost of the most frequently arranged procedures and will be able to resolve ” those procedures that generate a waiting list or care problems when actually necessary”.
“Public centers must establish in advance what their consultation needs will be for each type of procedure and, based on said need, be able to estimate the budget for said contracting of complementary health care,” says the order, which adds that it is adapted “to the principles of necessity and effectiveness” and it addresses “the principle of proportionality and efficiency”.
The order also states that, on an exceptional basis, concerts may be held with centers “located in the neighboring autonomous communities, under the same conditions considered in this order.” EFE
