The healthcare providers decided cancel this Tuesday the collection of a 9% copay as of January 1 to prepaid patients, after a meeting with officials of the portfolio that leads Carla vizzotti.
According to a statement from the Argentine Federation of Health Providers (FAPS), an entity that brings together private hospitals, clinics, sanatoriums, emergency medical and geriatric services, “the national authorities ratified to the FAPS representatives the full validity of the current increase of 9% as of January 1, 2022 and guaranteed the sector that they will arbitrate the measures to comply with the transfer of 9% corresponding to January by prepaid medicine companies and management social works “.
The Ministry of Health, for its part, indicated that “the health authorities and representatives of the private health providers will continue working to find a solution to the challenges of the sector and avoid an impact on the pocket of affiliates and affiliates“.
In this way, resolution 2125 of July 2021 remains in force, which establishes that “Health Insurance Agents and Prepaid Medicine Entities must increase the fees for medical-assistance benefits provided to their beneficiaries and users by registered providers. in the National Registry of Providers of the Superintendency of Health Services, by nine percent (9%) as of August 1, 2021, nine percent (9%) as of September 1, 2021, nine percent one hundred (9%) as of October 1, 2021 and nine percent (9%) as of January 1, 2022, always based on the values in force from the previous month, “specified the national portfolio.
The health providers said that in the meeting held at the Ministry of Health they reported “once again to the national authorities the critical economic situation of the companies in the provider sector and the need to implement substantive measures to overcome this situation and build the foundations for a sustainable system “.
The last Sunday, providers had announced the collection of a 9% copayment for prepaid users, because the latter had informed them of the impossibility of complying with the increase in the value of their services, despite the increase in the fees of their affiliates (of 9% in January).
The meeting between the Government and the providers, initially scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, it was carried out during the morning and lasted just over an hour, according to sources from the Ministry of Health.
On the part of the health portfolio, the superintendent of Health services participated in the meeting, Daniel Lopez; the administrative secretary of the Ministry of Health, Mauricio Monsalvo; the Head of Cabinet Sonia Terragona, and the Secretary for Health Equity, Victor Urbani.
Meanwhile, representing the providers, José Sánchez, president of FAPS, Mario Lugones, (Fundación Sanatorio Güemes), José Luis Sánchez Rivas (Argentine Confederation of Clinics, Sanatoriums and Hospitals), José Cherro (Association of Clinics, Sanatoriums and Hospitals of the Argentine Republic) and Marcelo Kaufman (Chamber of Diagnosis and Outpatient Treatment Entities).
The Minister of Health, Carla vizzotti, had stated that, with the collection of the copayment, prepaid medicine companies “are not complying with the agreement and ministerial resolution” which provides that increases in prepaid fees have to be passed on to providers.
“We made from the State a agreement with prepaid medicine companies where a number of increases was defined in which, the last one is now 9% in January, “said Vizzotti referring to the 41.14% increase in prepaid installments, with a staggered application in four tranches of 9% each one, authorized last July.
“An agreement was signed and the ministerial resolution authorizing this latest increase (of 9% in next January) defines that this increase must be transferred to providers,” added the head of the Health portfolio in dialogue with radio Urbana Play.
“What happens is that in this way the agreement and the ministerial resolution are not being fulfilled and, in addition, people are charged the copay along with the 9% increase in prepaid“Vizzotti pointed out.
From the prepayments, the president and owner of Swiss Medical Group, Claudio Belocopitt, asked on Monday in radio statements to review the increases in agreed with the Government because “all the numbers ran” in the “second semester.”
In that sense, Vizzotti pointed out that his portfolio and the Superintendency of Health Services (SSS) “are not unaware of the difficulties in financing the health system” and “they will propose a table to work in that sense”.
