The tariff decree approved in recent weeks by the State-Regions Conference has reduced reimbursements for some services eye doctors jeopardizing the ability of the health service to provide the best services to patients. This is the alarm raised by the Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences (Siso) during the presentation event of the second national congress of the scientific society to be held in Rome from 18 to 20 May.
“We congratulate the Minister of Health for having obtained in just over six months from his inauguration a result that has always escaped in the past. However, the reimbursement rates provided for by the national health service in the ophthalmological field, confirmed downwards in the decree, do not allow to bring the treatment and prevention of visual disturbances up to date, penalizing citizens, who thus cannot benefit from technological and pharmacological progress”, says Teresio Avitabile, president of the Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences and full professor of Ophthalmological Diseases Visual at the University of Catania.
The case of the cataract is significant, underlines Romolo Appolloni, director of Ophthalmology at the Sant’Eugenio-CTO Hospital in Rome and member of the Siso board of directors.
“In recent years, the value of reimbursements for this operation has dropped from 2,500 euros in the 2000s to around 700/800 euros today, including everything from materials to the operating room,” says Appolloni. “A progressive evolution of technologies has corresponded to a paradoxical and parallel erosion of resources” which, according to experts, makes it impossible, for example, to implant a more innovative artificial lens during cataract surgery capable of correcting vision defects such as myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia. It is not the only case: “for a chalazion, a simple operation which however requires the use of the operating room and sometimes an anesthetist, the fee is 30 euros; for the correction of some eyelid problems 70-80 euros; for the visit only 25 euros”.
The scientific society therefore asks the institutions to adjust the tariffs in order to be able to ensure patients the best available services.
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