What are the new measures of the Minister of Health on this issue and what reasons increased the above amount, are some of the main questions that need to be answered.
While the Cypriot citizen puts his hand deep in his pockets every day, either for his survival either for his obligations to the state, the state itself cannot collect this money. The hole that was created in the public health reaches 20 million, with this number growing each year. Even worse is the fact that the long delay in collection of these revenues carries a distinct risk that the revenues will be erased.
There have been changes and new regulations in health care of patients in hospitals, so that money would be placed into the state funds. The delay revenues concerning hospitalization of patients are increasing though.
According to the Audit Authority, the amount of the delay revenues amounted to €19.544.251 million until 31/12/1012.
The amount of € 2.728.488 million euros is related to hospitalization in 2012, while the amount of € 16.815.763 million is related to medical expenses in respect of previous years.
We can see a detailed table regarding the delay revenues of public hospitals in our country.
In the Audit Authority’s report, it was noted that there are still some hospitals that have not taken the appropriate recovery measures for the patients’ delay revenues, with consequent risk that a large amount of the money owned, will not be possible to be recovered.
Worth mentioning is the fact that reminder letters have not sent to hospitalized patients or for those who received treatment for the years 2011-2012. Even more tragic is that for the patients who received treatment / therapy in the years 2008-2010, the first reminder letter was sent in July 2011 to July 2012, the second letter was sent from April to October 2012, and the third in September to November 2012 .
According to the report, a significant delay was also observed in the promotion of delayed revenues at the Legal Service, for claims registration. Specifically, in October 2010, after a long delay, statements with amounts due by 31.12.2007, totaling € 835.161 were submitted to the General Attorney for legal action.
The General attorney indicated on his side that in order to enable the inclusion of lawsuits against debtors, the Ministry should ascertain their accurate data and other information, such as the type of services provided, how the amount owed was calculated etc. According to the General the Auditor’s Report, the General Attorney further suggested that the reasons why this situation lasted for so long, without taking any decision regarding the amounts due in the meantime, is a matter which should concern the administration of Hospitals and the Ministry of Health in general. As stated in the 2012 report, the promotion of debts from 2008 until today to the Legal Service is still pending. The Audit Office highlights that if relevant actions do not register on time, then those amounts may not be able to be claimed in court under the deadlines specified in the Limitation of Conductive Rights Law of 2012 and 2013.
24h contacted the Health Minister Mr. Petros Petrides to inform us on this matter and the measures taken.
Mr. Petrides in his statements states characteristically “this time we have sent registered letters to the debtors of these amounts to settle their debts right away. Of course due to the economic crisis, there is a portion of people who cannot pay and in these cases our Ministry has moved to a settlement that includes a monthly cut.”
Mr. Petrides emphasizes ‘in cases were some people could pay for their debts but they did not do it, they have been brought to justice’. Of course there are cases where the debts have been deleted because some people have died or many years have gone by.”
Regarding the new measures taken to eradicate this phenomenon, the Minister states that “the new measures have been implemented and the aim is to eliminate this phenomenon, highlighting that the Ministry’s job right now is to collect the amounts due. Today no patient leaves the hospital without paying the amount he owes.”
Finally, Mr.Petrides said that a great effort is made to ensure that the services are working. He also notes that “there is some potential in health services; we are not giving away hospitalization based on the laws and economic data of each of us and then be characterized as a beneficiary, we cannot close our eyes.”
From our side, we hope that eventually these € 20 million will be collected and will not get lost in some black hole.
