According to the Minister of Public Health, Freddy Hidalgo, some 90% of the country’s private health centers are ready and have been approved for providing services to the Health Risk Administrators (ARS), the local HMOs that provide health coverage with providers under contract. Hidalgo pointed out that the centers would be inspected and monitored annually and that any facility that fails to meet the required standards would be notified and possibly closed down. Hidalgo was interviewed by Listin Diario reporters at the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Public Administration, designed to provide institutional strengthening to ten public hospitals and improve the quality of their service. The ten hospitals that have been prioritized are the Jose Maria Cabral y Baez Regional University Hospital, the Alejandro Cabral Regional Teaching Hospital, the Dario Contreras Traumatology Hospital, Luis E. Aybar and Francisco Moscoso Puello hospitals, the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital, the Nuestra Senora de La Altagracia Maternity Hospital, the Luis Morillo King Hospital in La Vega, the Jaime Mota Hospital in Barahona and the Antonio Musa Hospital in San Pedro de Macoris.