EOPYY struggles for funding, sees overdue debt rise
Greece’s main healthcare provider, EOPYY, has seen its overdue debts – most of which are owed to hospitals – climb to well over 4 billion euros as, in turn, social security funds are failing to meet their financial obligations towards the organization.
Health Minister Panayiotis Kouroublis informed Parliament that EOPYY, which was formed on January 1, 2012, had run up debts of 625 million euros to private clinics, doctors and drug companies. However, this is dwarfed by the debts to state hospitals, which have reached 3.8 billion euros.
EOPYY, though, is also owed an increasing amount of money by social security funds. In April, the amount owed by the funds had risen to 1.13 billion euros as EOPYY received just 627.8 million euros, when it was due to be pocketing 900 million. The state also held back in its payments to the healthcare provider, transferring 87.4 million euros in the first quarter of the year, which was 43 million short of what had been budgeted.
As a result, EOPYY is holding back on payments to the doctors, clinics and pharmacies it works with.
Also, EOPYY’s medicines bill was 107 million euros off target for the first four months of the year, compared to an overspend of 86 million euros during the same period last year. At the same time, though, spending on diagnostic tests was almost 20 percent below the target.
