Where are the patients?

[NewsWhore]

The frontpage story in today's Hoy shows empty seats at what is usually one of the nation's busiest hospitals, the Salvador B. Gautier. According to the article, demand for services has fallen by 50-70% during the first month of the newly-installed Family Health Insurance Program (SFS). The newspaper reports that many clinics are refusing to accept patients covered by the Dominican Health Service (SDS), due to the low coverage offered by that health management organization, or ARS, as known locally. A lack of knowledge seems to be one of the major impediments to efficient service, according to the article with many persons lacking even a basic understanding of what is their due. In the case of the Salvador B. Gautier Hospital, the normal RD$29 million monthly income dropped to just RD$9 million during the first month of the SFS program. A secretary at the Gomez Patino Clinic in Santo Domingo told Hoy reporter Altagracia Ortiz that she had been working at the clinic since it was founded, and "understands nothing about the social security program." At the Center for Otolaryngology patient numbers are down by 50% due in large part to a decision by specialists in the field not to accept any form of HMO payments. On the other hand the article says that the specialist clinics at the Plaza de la Salud are seeing 20% less patients, but numbers there are rising as this government-owned center does accept the ARS plans.

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