Functionele omschrijving van integrale geriatrische zorg

With the arrival of the Zorgverzekeringswet (ZVW, Cure Insurance Act) functional description came into use. Functional description creates an opportunity for health insurers to actively decide who will provide care and where, as long as the ‘what’ and ‘where’ criteria of the insured performances are met. Thinking in terms of functions, expertise and instruments has become a guiding principle and with it also the question: ‘What is needed to provide this specific client with good care and who can provide it for what quality and what price?’ In the interest of insurers, the functional description of the health care supply enables insurers to contract sufficient, regionally oriented and high-quality care. Moreover, in the interest of the client, functional description contributes to the coherence and organisation within health care.

The College voor zorgverzekeringen (CVZ, Health Care Insurance Board) is of the opinion that both with regard to the present and the future situation, the current description of geriatric care in the ZVW is inadequate when it comes to entering into agreements on the question who will provide care and where. By order of the CVZ, Regioplan Policy Research conducted an inventory survey.1 By means of desk research, interviews with key figures, a web survey among geriatric professionals and a sounding board group meeting, the developments in integrated geriatric care have been investigated. Moreover, a conceptual scheme has been designed in order to describe geriatric care in terms of integratedness and functions. The focus of this article is on the contents and significance of this conceptual scheme.