Filenews 13 December 2024
The issue of understaffing of the Health Insurance Organization is highlighted in statements by the chairman of the Staffing Committee of the Board of Directors of the Health Insurance Organization, Kyriakos Droussiotis.
Droussiotis said that the positions approved for 2024 are an important staffing step, but the approval of the requested budget positions for 2025 is also crucial.
He also pointed out that no one can doubt that the implementation of the GHS was a historic achievement for the country, adding that some people worked hard for it. He added, however, that its operation was done without the system being fully or even satisfactorily ready, estimating that "enough was left that I believe there was the will to do it in parallel with the experiences of the operation".
Indicatively, he said that the medical audit, which should be an integral part of the operation of the GHS, today should have been ready or at least we should be close to its operation, which we are not.
Apart from the weaknesses of the system that had to be prioritised, he continued, "the rapid increase in the budget (it has almost doubled since 2020) as well as the expansion of the range of GHS services, the needs and events, pre-empted the HIO, with the result that staffing and procedures in some services of vital importance for the size and scope of the Organization have not operated at all or are unbearably understaffed."
Obviously, Droussiotis said, the current serious needs and lack of experience did not give the luxury to both the staff and the Board of Directors to address the issue of staffing, which is inextricably linked to targeting the administrative weaknesses of the Organization internally but also to identifying and correcting distortions and abuses, some of which are particularly provocative.
There are, he noted, "many gaps in the system and filling them could save several million." He also said that the Agency works for what is necessary, thanks to the competence, conscientiousness of executives and employees and the support it receives by purchasing services.
The chairman of the Staffing Committee of the Board of Directors of the Health Insurance Organization, said that the doubling of the budget from 2020 reflects to a significant extent the needs and worsens the conditions for addressing the weaknesses that should have been addressed from the beginning.
The abuses by a percentage of providers, realizing the weaknesses of the effective control of the Organization due to understaffing, reach the limits of the challenge, he noted, considering that penalties must immediately become more severe, dissuasive and exemplary.
Mr. Droussiotis said that there is, of course, a portion of providers that operate flawlessly, respecting the System. However, he noted, the system is also abused by beneficiaries in many ways, who exploit gaps in the Legislation, burdening the system with significant amounts (estimates from the HIO services are several million).
An immediate change in legislation and criteria is required, as well as exemplary deterrent penalties, he added, adding that there are frequent transfers of beneficiaries from doctor to doctor, because they are not satisfied with their often unreasonable requests.
He added that the most important thing is that the problems have already been identified by the Organization, they are many, and some particularly serious, stressing that staffing is needed to deal with them.
A serious issue, he said, "is that staffing is not solved overnight and that a period of assimilation is needed, training that must be done gradually."
The Board continued, with many committees working hard, and feeling acutely the effects of staff shortages. He also said that the Organization is constantly shouldering new responsibilities (the most recent being the sending of patients abroad and the assumption by the Ministry of Health of nominal requests for medicines).
Staffing Reorganization Committee
The accumulation of the workload of the system but also the problems of administrative operation faced by the Board of Directors, the pressure from the Agency's directorates who are aware of the problems, mainly the abuses due to the lack of control of providers and beneficiaries, with suffocating calls for staff reinforcement, prompted a team of members of the Board of Directors to work voluntarily and assess the needs and problems of the Organization in depth, at the end of 2023, Droussiotis said.
Asked about this, he said that representatives of the CCCI, OEB, the Government (members of ICPAC), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and OSAK participate in the Committee.
He also recalled that the Commission presented the results of its work last May to the Governing Council. The need for staffing was the primary and main finding. The results of the staffing study are consistent with the findings of McKinsey & Company, which was conducted before the implementation of the GHS, Droussiotis concluded.
CNA
