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Hadeel Farfour wrote in Al-Akhbar:
The accusations of “zabra” hospitals and the seizure of public money through inflated false bills are not new. What is new is the decision of the Ministry of Health, after years of waiting, to close one of the largest waste gutters in Lebanon, reaching 500 billion pounds annually, which goes into the pockets of hospital owners to through the tone of the boredom of the Lebanese people repeating them, called “crossing the financial limits”.
Manipulation of operation codes; billing for fake surgeries; registration of patients benefiting from the services of insurance companies at the expense of the Ministry of Health and charging a hospitalization allowance on both sides; billing of “formative” radiographic images not attached to your results; recording simulated laboratory exams and manipulating the number of days a patient stays in the hospital; Insert fake patients and charge them for spending “days” in the hospital, without essentially crossing their doors; stealing from some government hospital managers on the periphery of the diesel to heat, forcing patients to bring their “heaters” with them!
These, and many others, are examples of what the scrutiny of bills sent by hospitals, government and private, to the Ministry of Health, which detected suspicions of systematic looting of public money by reviewing the files of “patients of the ministry”, that is, those who do not benefit from any health coverage provided by the other guarantors, and who are the cost of their hospitalization and treatment at the expense of «Health». They are examples of health waste and corruption in the hospital sector, “reflecting a mafia mind that belittles the mind of the ministry and the state at the same time,” according to Health Minister Hamad Hassan, who on April 21 last , canceled the contract signed with the Al-Mashreq Hospital and suspended the observer’s contract and forwarded the file to the Prosecutor’s Office. With retroactive effect on all the invoices of the institution.
According to information from “Al-Akhbar”, the annulment decision came after it was discovered that the hospital claimed in reports submitted by it that it had treated 96 patients at the expense of the ministry, so it was later discovered that only 16 of them had actual files, while 80 of the alleged patients did not primarily exist in the files! This prompted Hassan to open the archives of the rest of the hospitals and re-examine them, and formed an entry point for his decision (No. 1/454), on April 28, through a strict examination of the archives that exceeded the financial limit assigned to hospitals contracted with the Ministry, as of this month (the ministry assigns to each hospital You contract with it a specific amount to spend to cover the costs of uninsured patients, and exceeding the financial limit means exceeding the funds allocated to patients, requiring reporting including invoices for additional funds.)
Some of the files seen by “News” show, for example, that a private hospital manipulates operation codes (codes) and falsifies surgical work to double the cost, while other hospitals have “semi-static medical consultations … there are, for example, 270 patient files In a month, they all include an examination by the doctor himself, “Hamad told Al-Akhbar. There are also patient files indicating that they were admitted to the hospital for three days, while it was found that they only stayed for one day. The Ministry’s audit unit also found that several patients only performed laboratory tests in the hospital, at a time when their records included their hospital stay for five days. In some cases, there are files indicating that the patient undergoes a large number of laboratory tests and radiographic images, without attaching their results to the file, and then It is from verification that these tests were not originally performed.
Interestingly, the staff at the audit unit, while trying to communicate with patients to verify the nature of the treatment they received, were surprised that the phone numbers of dozens of patients were incorrect!
According to information obtained from the audit unit, the differences resulting from the cost covered by the ministry and the percentage borne by the patient “sometimes do not exceed £ 35,000, while the hospital receives at least £ 1 million.” Ironically, a review of the files showed that a hospital employee who benefits from the services of an insurance company underwent treatment at the hospital at the expense of the ministry, and the hospital charges the cost of treatment from both the ministry and of the insurance company together!
Hamad explained to “Al-Akhbar” that “large university hospitals with a financial ceiling of not less than three billion lire claim some patients who are not contracting with the Ministry of Health, and assign the ceiling to privileged patients.” The Health Minister confirmed that the audits “showed disastrous results,” and stressed that the ministry “will work to combat corruption in health by reinforcing control over excess financial limits.” The objective of the decision, according to Hamad, is “to stop the waste in its time and moment and not through subsequent measures.” It is part of “a healthy health and hospital strategy that protects the citizen and preserves the right of the institution without attributing suspicious charges to the Ministry of Health and public money.” He noted: “The citizen’s right to see the invoice and the medical procedures implemented to which it was subject, and to request an audit with the doctor of the ministry assigned to the invoice before paying the difference.” It is no longer allowed to tell the patient that the bill has not yet been prepared as it must be ready before the patient leaves the hospital.
What about the doctors they watch?
Hamad acknowledges that “many of them are suspected of their complicity and complicity, and will be transferred to the Prosecutor’s Office immediately after our direct scrutiny, which was not the case previously.”
The decision to tighten scrutiny of exceeding financial limits comes in the midst of a battle by private hospitals to recover their accumulated money in the state, which is estimated at “two billion pounds, of which only a small one was spent part, “said the president of the Union of owners of Private Hospitals, Suleiman Haroun, at one point to” Al-Akhbar. Previous However, Aaron did not have to make frequent calls to find the union’s opinion on the ministerial decision.
The cost of hospitalization incurred by the Ministry of Health annually is estimated at 425 billion lire. With government hospitals exceeding the financial limits allocated to them, the cost sometimes reaches £ 500 billion, according to ministry sources.
These events require a review of the reality of the hospital in Lebanon and its working mechanism, not only in order to rationalize its annual cost, but also to guarantee that all citizens, the hospital institution and the Ministry of Health obtain their right. without either party feeling injustice.
“Government” at the service of “private”?
The abuses registered by the audit unit of the Ministry of Health are not limited to private hospitals, but affect many government hospitals “that have to regain their role,” according to Health Minister Hamad Hassan, who confirmed that every president of the board that does not fulfill this role will be processed.
The banner of Hamad’s reference to audits indicated that the decision of some government hospitals to deliberately close sections for the benefit of private hospitals and with the complicity of heads of boards of directors. He also noted that “there are new tools, equipment and supplies such as bottles and others that are not used and are not used in government hospitals. There are sections broken as a result of a systematic decision to close them and not operate them, which we will address in the next stage. ”
The most prominent decision of the minister.
For the ninth article establishing the implementation of the decision from the beginning of May, Resolution No. 1/454 consists of eight other articles, the first of which is the definition of hospital cases through which the hospital may exceed the financial limit approved for him and “are the cases of illness that can be offered to transfer to another hospital, the patient, is at risk and exacerbates his illness and represents a danger to his life, that is, except for emergency cases that are followed up in the hospital and by the treating doctor (such as chemotherapy).
The decision also stipulated that hospitals must inform the Financial Ceiling Abuse Committee in writing of the date of exceeding the monthly financial limit to be assigned to physicians, inspectors and monitors to review the completed medical files, provided that the Committee omits the Financial limits in regulations issued by contracting hospitals that are audited based on a written assignment by the Director of Care Medical reports are submitted in sequence to the Minister of Public Health (…).
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