Residents of the South who went to stay temporarily in less-dangerous areas can
get community health services there from another health fund if their own health
insurer does not have a facility there, the Health Ministry decided on
Tuesday.
Revital Topper, the ministry’s official who supervises the
health funds, wrote in a letter to the four public insurers that they should
cooperate during the emergency to help displaced people even if they are staying
in small settlements or villages where they have no agreement with other
insurers on a regular basis.
If a member of a different health fund comes
in asking for service, the insurer need only ask a few questions including
information about where he is living temporarily rather than in the South. He
will receive such services after identifying himself and a contact person speaks
to the person’s own insurer, Topper said.
She also asked the insurers to
provide list of their contact persons to simplify this service until the end of
the emergency. Her instructions do not prevent the various health funds from
reaching agreements among themselves as long as this makes basic medical
services more accessible to residents.
Meanwhile, Maccabi Health Services
announced that residents of the South can get prescriptions for drugs on the
basis of a telephone consultation with their doctor rather than seeing them in
person during the emergency.
Call *3555 or 1-700- 50-53-53 for
details.
Maccabi said that after speaking to their doctor on the phone,
he or she will send the prescription to the patient and to the Maccabi Pharm
pharmacy that the member chooses. The pharmacists will prepare the prescriptions
in advance, and the patients will not have to wait in line. The service will
also be expanded to the center of the country and the Jerusalem
region.
The second-largest health fund also announced that its hotline
staffers are giving support and advice on stress and anxiety of children and
adults. The hotline, launched after the conflict began, has already helped 200
people The service, provided by social workers and psychiatrists, is open around
the clock and open to members of all health funds, and not only those in
Maccabi.
In addition, Maccabi branches in the South have been fortified
so members will not be endangered when they go there for services.