FSSH debts leave patients without health services, concerned patients, Vita says there will be a plan

The Association for Patients ' Rights requires that as soon as responsible institutions find a solution to the debt's payment, as patients are only becoming poorer, trying to provide their own means for recovery.

While, from the Health Insurance Fund, they say that as an institution, they do not have means to settle this debt of millions, meanwhile, Health Minister Arben Vitita declares that a plan will be made on the issue based on evidence.

Chairman PRAK, Besim Kodra, has declared that Kosovo patients are suffering from the financial woes the Fund has for Health Insurance.

He has said the papers issued by the Fund are not familiar with patients who are then being forced themselves to provide money for health care.

“Patients are falling prey once again that the Fund for treatment outside public institutions is not being managed better, and patients are constantly suffering to receive health services at another institution. So far there is no certain responsibility as far as this Fund is concerned, I think it should begin to claim responsibility so that patients can begin and take the health services they need. Hospitals don't recognize FSH's vows they don't know in other countries, the patient is forced to raise his own money and pay for what he wants to take out of public institutions, the pledges he's given to the Fund they never know, and this certainly causes problems, because some diseases are very expensive and patients can't cover. These debts must be paid very quickly, and institutions must take steps to reduce the need for citizens to be treated outside public institutions. So, to improve domestic health services and maximize the possibility of them being treated here”, Kodra said.

While the Retailer of the Fund for Health Insurance, Bujar Kacuri, has already declared that they have established a Commission tasked with obtaining debts, which the Fund has in private and public hospitals abroad.

Kaciuri has said that the Fund for Health Insurance does not have the financial opportunity to settle this million debt, but has stressed that so far they have not received any concrete promises from the Ministry of Health in this regard.

“E has established a commission that is tasked with obtaining all debts that the Fund has to pay to public hospitals mainly abroad and privately within the country and is tasked with identifying these debts and preciseing them and then seeing the possibility of repaying these debts through programming or reaching any agreement mainly with Turkish hospitals, where we know Turkish hospitals have the highest number of these obligations. We don't literally get any promises that the total amount will be paid, but this job continues to need a process, should be reflected once in the situation we are in. It is true that we, like the Fund, cannot cover all these expenditures we have inherited in large number of obligations taken on the grounds that never respected the budgetary opportunities the Fund has had and were approved abroad for budgetary shortages”, he said.

Even FSSA director Bujar Kaciuri's taskman admits that there are cases when hospitals against which the Fund is indebted, patients are not accepting papers issued by the institution.

There are times when the hospital doesn't accept the ballot, which we release as an institution, but the Fund doesn't have any mechanism that would help these patients. It is a hospital decision, and the reasoning is that because of large debts paid by the Fund, we cannot treat patients, currently we don't have any chance to come up in any form or any other aid to offer patients”, Kaciuri says, the KP writes.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Arben Vitita, failing to give any deadlines on when such payments can be made, has stated that they have met hospitals to which the Fund is in debt and are already awaiting evidence from a working group under which the plan to settle these debts will be drafted.

“We have also had meetings and communications with hospitals, which the Health Insurance Fund owes, has formed a team of workers within the Health Insurance Fund where all the hospitals will be contacted so that the evacuation of all these debts can be made and a plan for how these debts will be cleared, but based on these evidence that this processing group will present as detailed debts and well analyse”, says the Year.

Last year due to allegations of misuse and mismanagement for treating patients at private clinics abroad, mainly in Turkey, the Fund's Board has dismissed him from office by Fund director Fatmir Plakicin.