Diagnostic imaging and financing private diagnostic facilities in Poland
At the Symposium, Dr Brzesinsky will describe
Over the past few years a steady growth in the number of private diagnostic facilities has been seen. Observation reveals few dominant trends in this process.
Let’s focus first on the origin of such facilities. Despite the involvement of some major multinational firms, companies based in the Polish capital hold the bulk of this market. Large or small, these companies represent two different philosophies in terms of operation: one being limitation of costs to maximise profit; the other is uncompromising quality, even at some cost to profit margin. In between, there is some balance between these two attitudes, but that is in the minority. So far the ‘ultimate quality’ approach seems to have the upper hand. In some cases the result is so successful that even medical universities decide not to purchase their own equipment but to outsource diagnostic imaging altogether.
Refunds for services from the National Health Fund remain a burning issue. At the moment the NHF is refunding examination costs for hospitalised patients and co-funded examinations, where primary health care facilities share the cost of out-patient examinations. In the past, the role of diagnostic imaging in the efficiency of the medical process has been underestimated, in some cases to such an extent that some diagnostic exams were not refunded unless referral was after a hospital admission. This was far from efficient. Nowadays, awareness of the importance of diagnostic imaging is growing, which is reflected by the increasing number of screening studies sponsored by local authorities. Of course there are issues to be resolved. One is the inadequate number of procedures limited by contract, leading to long waiting lists. Another important issue is the case of procedures performed over the contract. Private and public diagnostic entities are required to stay within limits of the contract. However, on the other hand they are obliged to perform every procedure in life threatening circumstances. Obviously this results in exceeding the number of examinations, leading to vigorous disputes with the NHF, sometimes ending in court.
Fortunately these are not the only sources of finance for diagnostic procedures. Over the years a more or less constant percentage of patients, on a level of 10%, have examinations financed by private insurance companies or with their own funds. Also worth mentioning is the ever expanding involvement of private diagnostic centres in an increasing number of pharmaceutical trials.
What about the future outlook? It is extremely optimistic. More and more projects to expand private diagnostic centres are being financed with European funds. At the moment the number of such beneficiaries is already quite substantial. Also there is growing awareness, even at the lowest levels of local authorities, that early diagnosis resulting from a timely diagnostic procedure is highly beneficial and therefore important. We can look forward with confidence to the future and expect a steadily growing market share of private companies in the business of diagnostic imaging.
08.03.2007
