The theme of the month is certainly the war in Ukraine. However, we will stay in the area of medical devices and focus on the most important legislative novelty, which is the draft decree on the electronic prescription (ePoukaz).
It's great news that the Ministry of Health has finally made the ePoukaz a departmental priority. Although there is a significant delay compared to the originally planned launch in March this year, as we informed you in the previous issue, this step has advanced the implementation of the ePoukaz. In line with general expectations, the ePoukaz is technically built on the already established and proven eRecept platform. A new element in this system are the workplaces that were not previously involved in the system. These are opticians and all other persons with whom health insurance companies have signed a dispensing contract.
At the request of these persons, SÚKL will also issue them an access certificate to the eRecept system. As in the case of the eRecept, the unique identifier of the ePoukaz will be implemented as a linear or two-dimensional barcode. The ePoukaz will contain essentially similar information as the existing prescription, augmented with information necessary for the operation of the electronic version. As regards the information relating to the specific medical device prescribed, this includes in particular the code assigned to the device by SÚKL, the trade name, the number of packages and the identification of the method of reimbursement. The patient's diagnosis will also be indicated, which is important for the limits for certain medical devices. The physician will either give the patient a printed guide with the ePoukaz identifier, or the physician can give the identifier to the patient via SMS, email or the eRecept mobile app.
It may come as a surprise to some that the ePoukaz will also allow prescription of custom-made medical devices. In this case, the individual design of the device characteristics and the SÚKL code for its reimbursement will have to be entered. There will certainly not be many comments on such a "technical" decree in other parts of the legislative process. We therefore expect its publication in the Collection of Laws soon. The decree is proposed to take effect on 1 May 2022. The ePoukaz will then be operational, in accordance with the "rolling effect", on the second calendar month after the month in which the Ministry of Health announces (also in the Collection of Laws) that ePoukaz is fully operational.
Author: Aleš Martinovský
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