Treasury notes issued
to private hospitals

Arrears valued at $1.1 billion

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has issued $80 million treasury notes to cover some of the arrears owed to private hospitals for the period 2000-2011. The arrears represent money owed by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), which has accumulated over the 12 years whenever the ministry exceeded the yearly financial ceiling it had set with hospitals.

Sleiman Haroun, Chairman of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, said: “This amount does not cover all the arrears of the MoPH, which is $120 million. So, hospitals will bear the losses.”

The treasury notes have a five-year tenure and carry an annual coupon rate of 5.25 percent, which will be paid semi-annually.

MoPH arrears for the period 2012-2016 are estimated at $100 million.

“We don’t know yet what will happen with these arrears, and whether the government needs a specific law for these arrears to be paid off in treasury notes,” said Haroun.

The public institutions' arrears to private hospitals, including the military and security institutions, MoPH, and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) reach $1.1 billion as at end of 2016. NSSF’s arrears alone reach $400 million. The Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrears’ to private hospitals reach $60 million. The Syndicate announced that it will stop accepting patients insured by ISF starting from July.

According to Haroun, 80 percent of the hospitalization bill is paid through public institutions, and the remaining is paid either in cash or through private insurance companies. The hospitalization bill reached $1.8 billion in 2016, according to the Syndicate.