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HEALTH CRISIS

Private hospitals to impose new payment terms on BDL, commercial bank employees in ‘response to’ banking restrictions

Private hospitals to impose new payment terms on BDL, commercial bank employees in ‘response to’ banking restrictions

(Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)

BEIRUT — The private hospital owners’ syndicate announced in a statement on Tuesday that as of April 1, “in response to banks’ restraints affecting hospital employees and their salaries,” Banque du Liban and commercial bank employees will have to pay their hospital bills in cash, in either dollars or their equivalent in Lebanese lira, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • “Banks have decided to not release hospital employees’ salaries and asked that hospitals supply them in cash,” the statement said. In response, the syndicate announced that BDL and commercial bank employees would, as of April 1, have “to pay their bills upon any admission to a hospital or for external services, in cash in dollars or its equivalent in Lebanese lira in accordance with the tariffs set by the hospital, regardless of the insurance coverage from which they benefit.”

    • The statement notes hospitals’ “financial difficulties” and their struggle to supply the necessary cash demanded by “medicine and medical supply importers and providers of non-medical supplies, such as fuels or food” following banks’ policies limiting cash withdrawals. 

BEIRUT — The private hospital owners’ syndicate announced in a statement on Tuesday that as of April 1, “in response to banks’ restraints affecting hospital employees and their salaries,” Banque du Liban and commercial bank employees will have to pay their hospital bills in cash, in either dollars or their equivalent in Lebanese lira, the state-run National News Agency reported.Here’s...