Auditor general slams HIO for two-tier health system

Auditor general Odysseas Michaelides slammed the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) on Tuesday, accusing it of trying to enact a multi-insurance Gesy through the back door.

In a tweet, the audit service “expressed concern over the fact Gesy’s spokesperson publicly declares it is legal for doctors outside of Gesy to operate within Gesy hospitals. Effectively, the HIO is undermining the defence line of its own legal advisers.”

The issue concerns 20 doctors who are engaged in private practice in private hospitals registered with the national health system. To ensure uniformity in terms of the monetary transactions carried out at Gesy hospitals, the government wants them out. Alternatively the doctors can continue operating out of these hospitals if they apply to join Gesy.

But Michaelides tweeted that the HIO, which runs the national health scheme, wants to allow private hospitals two forms of entry for patients: within Gesy and outside of Gesy. “This is coming from the so-called defender of the single insurance, which is trying until the very last minute, to get multi-insurance passed through the back door, making private insurance necessary.”

On November 3, the court will decide whether to issue an interim order suspending the implementation of the governmental decree relating to this group of doctors, until such time as it definitively rules on the matter.

Should the court issue the injunction, the doctors in question will be able to stay on at the hospitals until the court’s final ruling. If the court does not grant the requested injunction, the doctors would have to vacate the premises immediately.