Gigantic bills and the lack of support are the end for POZ facilities

- Ubiquitous increases in the absence of support for primary health care facilities, i.e. leaving them with enormous, devastating bills, payment deadlines will cause further clinics to close. If the government does not immediately intervene in this direction, the availability of medical services for patients will be seriously threatened! - alerts in a letter to Mateusz Morawiecki, Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Bożena Janicka, President of the Agreement of Healthcare Employers.

A government bill on special solutions to protect gaseous fuel consumers in connection with the situation on the gas market has been submitted to the Sejm. It provides for tariff protection until December 31, 2023, including gaseous fuel recipients who are "entities providing healthcare services financed from public funds, to the extent that they consume gas fuel for the purposes of providing these services." In its current shape, the project turns out to include also service providers other than hospitals, to the extent to which they provide services financed by from public funds.

The condition for including the protection tariff is to submit a declaration of meeting the conditions for recognizing the entity as a recipient entitled to the reduced tariff, specifying the estimated part of the gaseous fuel that will be used for the needs covered by preferential rates and for the needs not covered by them, as well as the indication of data used to determine these estimated fuel fractions. The declaration will also be made partially under the pain of criminal liability. Failure to submit the declaration will be the basis for applying a higher tariff.

… - The increases in gas fuel prices in Poland pose an unprecedented threat to financial liquidity not only in relation to households, but also entities performing medical activities, including hospitals and clinics. The Healthcare Employers Agreement supports therefore tariff protection for all gas recipients who are "entities providing health care services financed from public funds, to the extent that they consume gas fuel for the purposes of providing these benefits" (as provided for in the current wording of the government draft act on special solutions to protect gas fuel consumers in connection with the situation on the gas market). In the opinion of PPOZ, it is necessary to provide protection to all medical facilities that provide services financed from public funds on the basis of an agreement concluded with the National Health Fund - emphasizes Bożena Janicka and at the same time in a letter to Jacek Sasin, the Minister of State Assets, asks for the regulation and simplification of the required formula statements.

In the opinion of PPOZ doctors - it is necessary to quickly introduce this legal support and to develop a guide that would clearly indicate to the declaring entities which methods they should use to estimate the part of gaseous fuel that will be used for the purposes covered by tariff protection. Included in Art. 62bb paragraph. 2 regulation of this issue may turn out to be insufficient.

- Due to the incoming bills for gas fuel consumption by primary healthcare entities, I would like to inform you that the amounts of these bills are devastating for any entity. It must not be forgotten that the poses are currently the front line in the fight not only against COVID-19, which generates growing expectations from both patients and decision-makers every day in order to provide Poles with medical services. The ubiquitous increases are a threat to the availability of benefits - medical services for patients. Lack of quick intervention and leaving medical entities with such enormous accounts will result in the closure of other units, because, as non-public entities, we do not have the possibility of getting into debt and waiting for repayment and debt reduction - emphasizes Bożena Janicka in a letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.