The president of the National Association of Private Clinics (Andeclip) sat for a meeting with the Superintendent of Health and Labor Risks, and the Public Health Minister Altagracia Guzman that concluded with the recalling of a recent measure that obliged their customers to exclusively use their own diagnostics services prior to surgeries at the hospitals. The decision was very controversial.
Nearly everyone who intervenes in the nation’s health sector has criticized the measure taken by the National Association of Private Clinics (Andeclip) that requires all laboratory work to be done “in-house” at the respective clinics. Several entities are studying the judicial aspects of this provision, including the Public Health Law and Law 87 – 01, and entities such as ProCompetencia are warning that the Andeclip measure could be in violation of Law 42 – 08. The outgoing CMD President Waldo Ariel Suero, first said that the measure was illegal and would increase the cost of private health care in the country.
However, in the digital news site 7 dias.com.do, Andeclip justified their position. The president of the National Association of Private Clinics, Rafael Mena, told reporters that the provision calls for laboratory studies to be done at the same facility where patients are receiving treatment before undergoing surgery. This policy was approved by the 116 private health centers that make up Andeclip. Mena argued that most of the lawsuits filed by clients against clinics and doctors are for errors in diagnosis carried out by outside medical labs – thus justifying the Andeclip policy. He said the measure is not totalitarian because it does not apply to patients who are simply consulting.
He asked the Superintendency of Health and Labor Risks (Sisalril) as well as the other institutions in the health sector to consider this appeal by the private clinics. Mena also issued a call to the directors of Pro-Consumidor as well as the Board of the Affiliates of the Social Security Defense (DIDA) so that ”they also demand the administrators of the local HMO’s (called Administrators of Health Risks or ARS and the Dominican Republic) that are companies that have enjoyed the best part of the health sector and yet do not cover the majority of the patients procedures.”
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7 Dias
29 November 2017
