The health insurance organisation will limit the number of referrals by personal doctors as part of efforts to promote primary health care, it emerged on Thursday.
“We want more health issues to be dealt with by the personal doctors instead of being referred to specialised practitioners,” the head of the organisation Andreas Papaconstantinou told the Cyprus Mail.
Based on international data, GPs refer about 25% of their patients, while in Cyprus doctors were found to refer about 70%.
The plan, according to Papaconstantinou, is to reduce the number of visits permitted per referral to specialised doctors.
“At a first stage, visits will be reduced to two instead of three per referral,” Papaconstantinou said.
The change will come into force in February 2021.
Long-term referrals will also be tailored based on the needs of the patients which will be decided by the specialised doctor, added Papaconstantinou.
Currently, long-term referrals are issued by personal doctors for twelve visits within a year.
“We can’t limit the number of referrals they issue” Papaconstantinou said, “But we will assign assessment indicators that will determine the appropriate behaviour of doctors for referrals”.
As an incentive for primary care practitioners to resolve more health issues without a referral to another doctor, the organisation will make part of their salary dependent on this assessment.
“We aim to establish that 30% of their pay will be affected based on how close they are to the expected number of referrals” Papaconstantinou said.
By the end of the year, the organisation will look into the possibility of starting the new assessment with a smaller percentage of the doctors’ salary, while other criteria are expected to be monitored such as the prescriptions and the referrals for laboratory exams.
Source: Cyprus Mail
