President to meet HIO over disputed €150 million payment

The president of the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) Andreas Papaconstantinou will meet President Nicos Anastasiades on Monday to discuss an issue concerning around €150 million that has reportedly not yet been paid to the organisation by the ministries of health and finance.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Papaconstantinou said the HIO will claim the money that the finance and the health ministries trimmed from the organisation’s budget back in February.

At the time, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides said the funds represent expenditure covered by the health ministry and that those costs must be recovered from the wider Gesy budget, justifying what the health ministry had done in consultation with the finance ministry.

Petrides said the finance ministry “does not control” the finances of HIO and centred his arguments on the auditor general’s scathing report, released in February, which highlighted alleged illegalities on part of the HIO, along with systemic overspending and incompetence.

For its part, HIO president at the time Thomas Antoniou said the budget cut will not be accepted, warning that this would destabilise Gesy.

The issue was supposed to be discussed during a special meeting convened at the presidential palace last Friday between Anastasiades and HIO representatives in the wake of stark warnings from both the finance minister and the auditor general that runaway spending as a result of abuse risked Gesy’s viability.

However, the issue revolving around the disputed €150 million was not touched upon, and it is set to be discussed on Monday.

After the last meeting, Anastasiades told officials the government was determined to address problems with the national health scheme, especially abuse of the system, a development that leads to an increase in health expenditure and damages to the level and quality of health care for patients.