Poland to Track Doctors' Schedules to End 'Bilocation' Payments

Poland's government is moving to curb the practice of doctors simultaneously working and claiming payment from multiple healthcare facilities. A new draft regulation mandates that hospitals report doctors' hourly work schedules to the National Health Fund (NFZ).

The initiative aims to increase transparency in healthcare service contracts and strengthen oversight of public fund expenditures. Currently, NFZ receives weekly reports from hospitals, but the new rules will require hourly schedules to be submitted by the 20th of the following month. This will enable the NFZ to better identify instances where a doctor is listed as providing services in different locations at the same time.

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This solution serves to increase the transparency of the execution of contracts for the provision of health care services and to strengthen the mechanisms for monitoring the correctness of services financed from public funds.

This measure is part of a broader package of reforms announced by the Ministry of Health, responding to recent media reports highlighting various irregularities within the healthcare system. Other planned changes include capping hourly rates for doctors at 240 PLN gross, setting limits on the percentage of a hospital's budget allocated to salaries, and accelerating the implementation of a central e-registration system.

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The obligation to provide data on the actual time of service provision by medical staff will facilitate the National Health Fund's ongoing analysis of the consistency of service provision with staff work schedules reported under the contract, as well as the identification of cases where the same person is simultaneously listed as providing services in different places at the same time.