Diritto alla salute e ICT: tra controllo della spesa e verifica di appropriatezza

This paper aims to analyze the state of the art of the application of new technologies in the healthcare industry and its use in the activity of appropriateness and cost control monitoring. All the reforms that have recently affected the health demonstrated the orientation of the legislator towards a rationalization of costs through more efficient use of available resources. This reorganization of the sector has been inevitably influenced by several factors such as the evolution of the concept of the right to health accepted nowadays as a financially affected right, the polycentric and multilevel nature of the health sector and the requirements to control the public spending that have strongly conditioned by obligations of supranational origin. In this context, the ICT (Information Communications technologies) could have played a central role in enabling both a better management of the sector (through the ESF) and the creation of appropriate means of cost trend (using the NSIS). However up to now, despite the current regulations, suitable systems have not been put in place to take advantage of all the opportunities provided by ICT tools in this area, as the outlined system is fragmented and inadequate to allow an effective and efficient check of the choices undertaken by the health system’s actors. Throughout the report we will analyze some of the current ICT tools used in the health sector, highlighting the critical issues and identifying any remedial actions in order to get a greater functional use in accordance with the new requirements of control and monitoring.