The government has regulated the law on electronic prescriptions: what changes

The national government has regulated electronic prescription law. From tomorrow, “photo recipes” will no longer be valid, medicines can only be purchased in pharmacies or drugstores via the medical prescription on paper or with the electronic or digital prescription, a file that the doctor makes via a digital platform, with certified electronic signature and unique identification by barcode or QR code.

through the Decree 98/2023published this Tuesday in the Official Bulletinthe executive power has approved the regulations of the Law No. 27,553 sanctioned in July 2020. In addition, the Ministry of Health issued two additional resolutions by which the creation of the federal health license for medical professionals registered in different jurisdictions and the process for registering digital platforms and applications that issue e-prescriptions for subsequent registration and inspection has been approved.

“What will happen tomorrow is no different from what happened, just that there are no more possibilities to continue to accept the recipe of the photo, which has been happening for a long time in all the provinces and in a large part of the social security, while there was a group above all of prepaid and above all in the AMBA area that continued to apply this modality (for patients with chronic diseases), “explained yesterday the head health portfolio cabinet Sonia Tarragona.

In this sense, he recalled that “the photo recipe was a temporary instrument”, implemented in an “exceptional” way to prevent the mobility of people during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it is necessary “to return to the normality that was and continues to be the paper prescription with a handwritten signature” or the electronic prescription with a digital signature, “because there is a law on the professional practice (of medicine) and a law on pharmacy which determine the validity of an order”.

At the end of last year, the Ministry issued Resolution No. 3622/2022 which established that instead of the physical prescription, photos of prescriptions made on paper and sent via web, mail or WhatsApp to pharmacies to buy medicines will no longer be valid in pharmacies. Then it was agreed that patients with chronic conditions and prepaid insurance companies that were using drug prescriptions written on paper and sent as a photo electronically, could continue to do so. until February 28.

GlobeLiveMedia participated this Monday in a meeting at the Ministry of Health of the Nation in order to detail step by step the new system which will govern from tomorrow throughout the country and for the entire population, whatever the type of pathology or treatment. The meeting took place in the presence of the Minister in charge of the region, Carla Vizzotti and officials responsible for implementing the new regulations.

Digital prescriptions will not be done through a single unified platform across the country. In this first instance, which will last 12 months, all platforms used today will be able to continue to be used. According to the first health portfolio survey, in the country, some 50 applications or platforms for making electronic recipes. Each doctor can access it through the public system of each jurisdiction (as in the city of Buenos Aires or the province of Buenos Aires), from certain social works -such as Pami-, those provided by prepaid and even free applications such as each doctor can download from the Internet.

“A deadline will be set for all available platforms to register and those who do not register will be excluded from the process. During this time, a minimum set of requirements so that once registered, they are evaluated. These requirements are those that are being considered with experts, with learned societies and with the various sub-sectors of the health system. This whole process is going to be gradual,” Vizzotti said.

Each digital platform must be able to validate signature of healthcare professionalthere patient identitythe name of medicine and his dosage. All of these aspects in the first year of implementation may be validated in some cases and not in others. According to the experience of other countries, this whole process takes between 5 and 10 years.

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