Minister of Public Health Freddy Hidalgo has delivered the first payment towards the remodeling of 56 of the nation’s public health centers. The overhaul will allow the government to begin to invoice these services to the Social Security network. Hidalgo said that 20% of patients who go to the hospitals have private health insurance, but these centers cannot collect for their services from the Health Service Administrators (ARS) because they are not equipped to do so. The three billion-peso-program will convert the large ward areas into smaller one and two-bed units. The 65 hospitals scheduled for remodeling include the Dario Contreras Hospital in Santo Domingo East, the Luis Eduardo Aybar in the National District and the Jose Maria Cabral y Baez Regional University Hospital in Santiago.