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Patients with permanently reduced working capacity can now receive expert decisions from the Territorial Expert Medical Commissions (TEMC) entirely electronically, without having to wait for them by post office or in person. This became possible after Information Services developed an additional functionality for the Information System for Medical Expertise Control (ISMEC), allowing all citizens registered in the Secure Electronic Delivery System (SEDS) and possessing an electronic signature to receive their documents fully automatically, saving significant time and costs. To take advantage of this innovation, TEMC patients must be registered in the SEDS in advance and must have explicitly requested to receive their documents electronically. So far, nearly 2,600 patients have already used this option.
“The functionality developed for receiving expert decisions through the Secure Electronic Delivery System makes it as easy as possible for patients, many of whom are among the most vulnerable groups, by eliminating the need to visit TEMC commissions in person or wait weeks for documents to arrive by post office,” stated Milena Ugrinova, Senior Business Analyst at Information Services. According to her, the digitalization of the process also significantly helps the medical commissions by saving time on sending and timely recording the delivery of expert decisions.
With the introduction of the option to receive TEMC decisions electronically via SEDS, the process of issuing expert decisions for permanently reduced working capacity has been completely digitized. Through the Information System for Medical Expertise Control, patients can submit electronic applications for assessment without visiting the Regional Medical Expertise Registry (RMER) and wait in queues, attach additional medical information required by TEMC, appeal commission decisions, etc.
Since October 2020, when ISMEC was launched, over 850,000 applications have been processed through the platform, and more than 840,000 expert decisions have been issued by TEMC commissions. Only 6% of TEMC decisions have been appealed. For the last 7 months over 40% of the medical records of patients with permanently reduced working capacity have been fully digitized.
Patients can monitor and control the entire process of issuing medical expertise themselves. Through the mobile app eHealth and the website of the National Health Information System (NHIS) at my.his.bg, citizens with permanently reduced working capacity have access to all available documentation related to their assessment—referrals from general practitioners, applications, protocols from medical commissions, TEMC decisions, etc.