Illustrative stock photo. (source: Sme)
Electronic health insurance cards, which state authorities planned to introduce in 2015 and later changed the launch date several times, have been scrapped. A draft amendment to the Act on National Health Information System banks on use of ID cards with electronic chips for health care, instead of individual health insurance cards, the TASR newswire reported.
“People, who have an ID card with electronic chip, can use it also to access the electronic personal health records as well as to identify providers of health care,” the draft amendment stated.
While not all people have gotten an electronic ID card so far, doctors and rescuers will access the records also by entering a patient’s personal identification number and insured people will prove their identity with current health insurance cards, TASR wrote.
Though the National Health Information Centre (NCZI) had to launch issuing of electronic health insurance cards in June 2017 according to the legislation, the launch date of the entire eHealth system has been postponed several times. Former NCZI’s director Igor Serváček signed an €18 million contract for supply of the system in March 2016, however, new Health Minister Tomáš Drucker cancelled it already after taking over the position.
Later, the ministry asked the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) to evaluate the electronic card system with the result that the system would require millions of euros in additional investment. NKÚ advised the use of ID cards based on the original phase of the project, TASR reported.
