New ZUS IT systems begins to track down excess payments to health funds

Towards the end of the year a number health funds might fail to find financial resources for medicines and hospitals. In a desperate attempt to save the system from a complete breakdown, the Health Ministry plans to recall excess payments made to the funds. Eight health funds have to return to the Social Insurance Administration (ZUS) excess money they received. The funds that are in the worst situation are: Podkarpacka (which has to pay back zl. 34 million), Zachodnipomorska (zl. 23 million), Opolska (zl. 23 million). For the remaining funds, the necessity of repayment will be less problematic as the sums are smaller and more manageable. The refunds, totalling zl. 82 million, will be given to those ones that need it most. The ZUS IT system has started to fully function and has identified around 85% of the wrongly sums. "These mistakes resulted in a catastrophic breakdown of the fund distribution system," said Andrzej Sosnierz, the former director of the Silesian Health Fund. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) A.C.