Al-Abyad announced coverage of heart supplies and raised doctors’ fees to what they were before the crisis

The Minister of Public Health in the caretaker government, Firas Al-Abyad, announced additional new decisions related to increasing health coverage for patients treated at the expense of the Ministry of Public Health, which as well as hospitals and doctors who treat these patients decisions will begin next September regarding raising the ceilings of hospitals that have worn out their ceilings by treating patients, increasing medical coverage for hospitals in second division, increasing the value of doctors’ tax deductions, and increasing about fifty new medical functions. for covered medical services, while the implementation of the decision regarding the coverage requirements for cardiac operations will begin next October, at the same time as the acceleration of the automation process of hospital and doctors’ accounts.

Al-Abyad confirmed in a press conference, “The focus at the last stage was on the emergency plan to deal with the expansion of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, but that does not take attention from the basic issues that the Ministry of Health the Public giving priority to it. , related to hospital issues, medicine and epidemiology.” Noting “soon to be announced initiatives on medicine and epidemiology subjects,” he said: “The hospital issue is the main focus of this press conference.”

Al-Abyad recalled that “the significant increase that occurred this year in the budget of the Ministry of Public Health allowed an increase in the allocations allocated to the case of hospitals, which reflected positively on the health coverage of patients, which was equal to 80% of what it was before the financial crisis, in addition to increasing hospital ceilings, which allowed patients to have access to the medical services they need, A careful study by the Ministry of Health teams has shown that there is a real improvement that patients have noticed in this area.”

He said: “Despite the obvious improvement, there are still other challenges in terms of quick access to services without additional costs. These challenges are related to several hospitals, especially private ones, ending their financial levels for providing services to Ministry patients, without receiving payments. as soon as necessary, and without increasing the health cover. are paid late, while they are less than necessary.”

He continued: “The Ministry has created several solutions that make a difference to the patient and the citizen in accessing services, noting in this area the efforts of the Hospitals and Medical Care Authority in consultation with the unions of the medical sector to arrive at the solutions mentioned.

The modernization of this process allows hospitals to submit their invoices quickly, and for the Ministry to analyze them quickly in a period of between one and three weeks, in order to send them to the Finance Department of the Ministry of Health Public, that is the Ministry of Finance. “

In this regard, Minister Al-Abyad confirmed that “the majority of hospital bills for the year 2023, at a rate of 98%, have been paid.” except for hospitals that were late in submitting bills or had exceeded their financial limits.”

He continued: “The bills for the fourth and fifth months are being paid, and the dialysis bills for the sixth and seventh months will be in the finances to be paid. “

He emphasized, “The Ministry of Public Health is serious about ensuring that taxes are paid within three months of submitting invoices to it, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance.”

Regarding doctors’ fees, Minister Geal announced that “most of them for the year 2023 have been transferred. He explained that the delay that occurred is due to waiting for the doctors to receive their Fresh account numbers Based on their application, which was submitted by several doctors, but not all of them until now.

– Raising the ceilings of hospitals that have eaten their ceilings by treating Ministry of Public Health patients. In this regard, Minister Al-Abyad said that the Ministry released three thousand five hundred billion Lebanese pounds to these hospitals, equivalent to about forty million dollars, which will give them new money for treat patients.

– Increasing medical coverage for hospitals in the second category for medical work related to mental health, starting next September.

– Increasing the value of doctors’ fees to what they were before the financial crisis. It increased from 375,000 LBP. to. Equivalent to four dollars for one medical code to 450,000 LBP. to. The equivalent of five dollars for one medical code. Minister Al-Abyad pointed out that this case was a big request from doctors who have no excuse or excuse to ask for more differences from patients who are receiving treatment at the expense of the Ministry. He explained that the application will start with the invoices that will be submitted on the first day of October for the medical work that took place the previous month of September.

Expand the medical services covered by the Ministry to reduce the burden on citizens by adding more than fifty new medical services starting next September.

– Begins to cover materials used in cardiac catheterization and valve operations, starting from the first of October next year. Minister Al-Abyad said that this decision solves a problem for patients, because the supply was a big burden for them, and that this will be followed by the next step in covering supplies for orthopedic work and others.

– Signing connection programs between government hospitals and university hospitals in the near future, in what means continuing the plan to support government hospitals, which includes expansion of departments in several of them, as the number of expansion projects has reached twenty-six projects. in government hospitals throughout Lebanon’s various provinces. Dr. Al-Abyad said that the Ministry is serious about ensuring that services in government hospitals are similar to their level in private hospitals, and that one of the reasons is because of the lack of cooperation in some private hospitals, so the solution was to find. another option.

Al-Abyad emphasized that “the series of previously announced decisions, despite the series of crises that Lebanon is seeing, is a very positive and great step taken by the Ministry of Health to ‘Public in terms of getting health services and speeding up access to them, especially for people. the most vulnerable classes in our society.”