447. Dental checks to pay for professionals

The promise was not fulfilled. The dentists of the North are still waiting for payment of most of the queries given in the context of the National Oral Health. Although there is money. The chaos only regularize the services in June.

The assurance given even very recently by Assistant Secretary of State and Health was that the payment of dental checks to the professionals who treat patients referred by health centers would go on track days in the past thirty-first of March The argument to justify the delay in payment, which has dragged since October, was the inability of the regional administrations of Health (ARS) and North Center to handle the volume of requests.

The truth is that the ARS Center solved the problem but not the North. Lack of staff was the excuse, at a time when payments declined requests for treatment for children integrated in the National Oral Health Promotion (PNPSO) in May 2009. The checks were delivered between July and August, resulting in an excess volume from September. It was necessary to use external services to help manage the payments.

According to Paulo Melo, secretary general of the Order of Dentists, the situation is only beginning to be solved. From October to March were validated 59,148 dental checks, and sent to the providers billing for the 12,486 checks. The last payments relate, mostly, the billing of December, said Paul Melo. The very backwardness led doctors not to send the invoices. The accumulated debt is 285 400 euros, with a promise of settlement next week.

Only, however, accumulate checks issued since January. The official statement, said the manager, is that the standardization of payments (30 days) will be a reality in June. Already we feel the secretary of state that the promise was not fulfilled, although there is a sign of improvement. At the Center, with less volume of orders, hiring staff solved the problem, subsisting only occasional situations of minor delays. In other ARS, there was no problem.

The PNPSO allowed access to oral health care to some sections of the community through the delivery of € 40 vouchers for treatments private clinics that have joined the program. He began by covering the approximately 65 000 pregnant women annually tracked in Health Centres (not extend to those opting for private) and elderly beneficiaries of the solidarity supplement, a group whose membership remains as weak, due to difficulties of information for themselves and crossing data with Social Security. Last year was extended to children aged seven, ten and 13 years. With nearly 30 million allocated this year, PNPSO soon extends to patients with HIV.

Jornal de Notícias (April 19, 2010)

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If the Health Ministry and the Directorate - General Health wreak havoc treat such a small percentage of children and adolescents, then picture yourself as walk the rest of the Portuguese population in terms of oral health.

It was good that the Health Committee of Parliament established the chaos that is responsible for oral health in Portugal, the Portuguese tax payers to pay for work done by Members and wish to be clarified why the oral health does not work in Portugal.