Following the launch of state health insurance for citizens and residents of this blessed land, most private clinics, hospitals and medical centres registered with the state have exploited the insurance to get the state’s money through exaggerated bills.
Auditors noticed that some clinics exaggerated the amounts that the state had to reimburse them, and presented inflated and unreasonable figures. It would be interesting to know the reason for this sudden greed to earn money quickly by illegal means. It is unfortunate, though, that the majority of private clinics are taking advantage of insurance in this way.
As a result of this greed, one of these clinics or private hospitals collected nearly QR50m in insurance payments in just four months. Some have even collected two or three times that amount or more, though their earnings earlier did not amount to even 10 percent of the current figures.
The state officials should reveal the truth about the health insurance money embezzled by private clinics and hospitals.
It is the public’s right to know where these funds have gone over the past year, since many people are not convinced about how these millions were disbursed. The questionable bills issued by the clinics are not only inflated but also invalid.
Unfortunately, when anyone enquires at these clinics and hospitals about the reason for such manipulation, they cheerfully reply that the government is paying, and that is true!
This is despite the fact that health insurance was launched by the Qatari government to improve the quality of health services, encourage and motivate the service providers to improve the availability and quality of their services through fair competition between the public and private sectors, regulate private health insurance to ensure consumer protection, provide additional health services to meet the growing demand, contain healthcare costs, promote accountability, and increase the options available to patients.
