Digitalization reduces healthcare costs
On 26.09.2023, the Federal Parliament adopted the motion by Councillor of States Erich Ettlin (Die Mitte, OW) 22.3859 "Master plan for digital transformation in the healthcare sector. Use of legal standards and existing data" was adopted. This instructs the Federal Council to use specific synergies and implement measures to make faster and more cost-effective progress. "We must finally make consistent use of the opportunities offered by digitalization in the healthcare sector and catch up quickly," explains Erich Ettlin.
Acceptance of the motion includes the following instructions to the Federal Council:
The Federal Council must submit a concrete master plan to Parliament that reliably sets out the digitization goals in terms of time and content and shows how they are to be achieved.
In the digitization of the healthcare sector, the legally defined, uniform standards and existing databases should be used and further developed, provided they are not profit-oriented or state-supervised.
The Federal Council submits an annual report to Parliament on the status of the digital transformation in the healthcare sector.
The Federal Council must use existing data and databases for the digital management of supply bottlenecks for human medicinal products and create a legal basis for this.
In the ordinance on the unique identifiers and safety devices on the packaging of medicinal products for human use, the Federal Council must make the affixing and verification of the safety features and devices mandatory - as in the EU.
With this decision, Parliament is showing that it is united in its support for accelerating and strengthening digitalization in the healthcare sector. This is because it holds potential financial savings of over CHF 8 billion [1]. This potential must be used to effectively curb health insurance premiums and make treatment paths safer and more consistent.
By using existing data sources and legal standards, rapid progress can be made in the digitalization of the healthcare sector without having to create new systems from scratch. This will also help to make progress on the urgent need to overcome the supply bottlenecks for medicines.
[1]According to a study by McKinsey&Company in cooperation with ETH Zurich entitled "Digitalization in the healthcare sector" from September 2021, digitalization could save around CHF 8.2 billion in Switzerland. https://www.mckinsey.com/ch/~/media/mckinsey/locations/europe%20and%20middle%20east/switzerland/our%20insights/digitization%20in%20healthcare/digitalisierung%20im%20gesundheitswesen%20%20die%2082mrdchance%20fr%20die%20schweiz%20de.pdf(Online access, 03.09.2023)