Platform provider TruBridge is ending its cooperation with the Vereniging Digitalisering Zorg Achterhoek (VDZA). The association is now forced to pull the plug on the regional personal health environment. MijnPGO was supposed to be one of the pillars of the digital transformation of healthcare in the region.
Healthcare organizations in the region have worked hard together in recent years to create this Personal Health Environment for citizens in the Achterhoek region. The facility was intended to facilitate the digital exchange of health data and give citizens more control over care and health.
MijnPGO has been actively used in the Achterhoek region since mid-2023. All healthcare organizations in the region can share data with citizens in the region. In recent months, several solutions have been successfully implemented, including 'Rehabilitating together', 'Parkinson's and then' and 'Samen Sterker Thuis in the municipality of Oude IJsselstreek'. On its own website, MijnPGO bills itself as 'the most complete PGO'.
Part transformation plan
MijnPGO was also given a prominent place in the regional plan being drawn up by providers and health insurer Menzis as part of the Integral Care Agreement (IZA). The transformation plan drawn up by the VDZA is almost complete, and talks with health insurer Menzis are going extremely positively, according to the association. All of these efforts may be thrown in the trash now that TruBridge has decided not to renew its cooperation with the VDZA.
No sustainable future
US-based Trubridge is the supplier of the GetRealHealth platform on which MijnPGO is built. The supplier is not confident of a sustainable future for PBMs in the Netherlands, citing recent government policies. For example, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport wants to drastically reduce the number of suppliers through a new tender process. This procedure is proceeding with difficulty. There is also the feeling that by developing a generic access function (Mijn GezondheidsOverzicht), VWS is competing with market parties. The VDZA calls it "very disappointing" to be informed that TruBridge "no longer has any confidence in how the Netherlands wants to develop a PBM."
Disappointed reactions
There is also disappointment in the reactions from the healthcare sector. "Extraordinary pity that such a complete PBM cannot be developed further," board chairman Erwin Bomers of Marga Klompé let it be known via LinkedIn. "A fragmented PBM landscape where there is a will, however, the way has not (yet) been found. A step back to give care recipients real control."
"Unfortunately, another setback to put the client/patient in a different position in the healthcare landscape," responds Maarten Van Rixtel, director of transition and innovation Sensire. "What a disappointment, especially also for patients and care providers in the region," states director Hans Niendieker of HINQ, cooperative care institution for appropriate and hybrid network care. "Surely this should be a signal to VWS, ZN and MedMij to ensure a stable future and structural funding with PBM as a means of data availability for all citizens."
Users of MijnPGO will have the opportunity in the coming weeks to secure their data. After that, access to MijnPGO will be closed and the stored data destroyed. The VDZA says it is urgently considering the future so that the regional plans for cooperation from the IZA agreements can proceed.
