Austria to introduce part-time medical contracts in health reform

Austrian Health Minister Korinna Schumann has announced that upcoming health reforms will facilitate more part-time medical contracts. This initiative aims to increase the number of doctors available for statutory health insurance patients.

Under the proposed changes, hospital doctors could potentially work as part-time physicians in planned specialist centers. This would allow for services such as day-medical procedures to be covered by insurance within these centers. The introduction of these contracts was a long-standing demand from the Austrian Medical Chamber and has been included in the government program by the ÖVP, SPÖ, and Neos.

The reform also emphasizes digitalization. Plans include integrating telemedicine into the 1450 health hotline and transforming the state health website, gesundheit.gv.at, into a centralized guidance and referral platform to provide controlled, reliable health information.