Already approved by the Council of Ministers, and promulgated by the President of the Republic, this decree-law comes into force on April 1st.

In the text published today in DR, it is read that “the beneficiary can request a medical examination via video call” and that “a medical examination is carried out via video call, to verify temporary or permanent incapacity, whenever it appears appropriate for the assessment to be carried out, as long as it is complemented with clinical information available for this purpose”.

Verification, reassessment and appeal committees may also be carried out via video call, in situations to be defined by the social security services.

In the new text, it is clarified that the verification of situations of permanent incapacity, disability or dependence, is based on the analysis of data relating to the physical, motor, organic, sensory and intellectual conditions of the beneficiaries.

And that “as a set of human and material resources allocated to verifying disabilities, it is integrated into the competent social security services, without constituting an autonomous organic structure”.

It is also defined that the technical verification of disability conditions by multidisciplinary teams, or by a certifying entity, is ensured by medical and technical experts from social security or other bodies, under the terms and for the purposes set out in specific diplomas.

In the statement from the Council of Ministers dated the beginning of December, it was said that the Government approved the change of this system, to “make it more effective and efficient, contributing to a faster and more judicious allocation of benefits within the scope of eventualities of illness, disability, disability and dependence”.