The document establishes new sources of financing so that the Ministry of Health can pay the debts it maintains with private sanatoriums. It will also serve to reactivate the agreement they have so that patients in the public sector can use the therapy beds free of charge.
Isabel Chaparro, general secretary of the Paraguayan Association of Sanatoriums and Private Hospitals (APSHP), reported that they asked the Ministry of Health to pay at least 70% of the current debt (US$ 36 million). This, in order to once again house public sector patients who require hospitalizations for Covid-19.
In other words, they request the sum of just over US$25 million to reactivate the agreement.
“We are not even talking about a cancellation. To serve these patients, all companies enter into debt with our suppliers. We have to regularize our debts too. It is a chain of payments,” he stated.
The last meeting held by the association with Salud was in December. The last payment made by the health portfolio was in the second week of January. However, Chaparro could not specify the exact amount.
CONTEXT
At the beginning of September 2020, the Ministry of Health signed an agreement with private sanatoriums through decree 4010.
With this, patients from the public sector could enter the private sector with all expenses covered by the State.
On April 17, 2021, the Executive promulgated Law 6725, which creates the National Coverage Fund for all Covid-19 patients. On the following May 20, the Executive promulgated Law 6742, which creates the National Coverage Fund for patients hospitalized with Covid-19. The purpose of both laws was to support the financing of the first decree so that sanatoriums continue absorbing patients from the private sector.
However, the sources that established both laws did not have the necessary resources. For this reason, in September 2021, the APSHP held a press conference where they announced that the health portfolio had a debt of US$ 43 million due to the agreement.
Since then, and to date, the ministry has already paid US$7 million, reducing the debt to US$36 million in four months. However, it will have to make a new disbursement of US$ 11 million to be able to use the beds and professionals of these sanatoriums again.