
The facade of the National Social Security Fund, in Beirut, in September 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) announced Wednesday the termination of its contracts with five hospitals it accuses of not complying with the surgery fees set by the fund, and of "seeking to impoverish what's left of Lebanese workers by imposing high and absurd rates."
As a result, agreements with Beirut Eye & ENT Hospital, al-Arz Hospital, Kesrouan Medical Center, Hôtel-Dieu de France, and al-Irfane Hospital are canceled starting Wednesday. The NSSF clarified that these measures do not include patients needing dialysis, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.
Sixteen other establishments are also at risk of having their agreement terminated for the same reasons, the NSSF warned, naming specifically the American University Hospital, Rizk Hospital, Lebanese-Geitaoui Hospital, St. George Hospital, al-Zahraa Hospital, Mount Lebanon Hospital, St. Charles Hospital, Maounat Hospital, Bhannes Hospital, Bellevue Medical Center, Notre-Dame-du-Liban Hospital, Notre-Dame Maritime Hospital, al-Youssef Medical Center, Habtour Hospital, Batroun Hospital, and Najjar Hospital.
The NSSF had conducted an investigation and discovered "that a good number of establishments, especially in the mohafazat [governorate] of Beirut, do not comply with surgery fees and ask patients for huge and exaggerated contributions [related to the remaining costs not covered by the NSSF on the total bill] without any right."
"Some hospitals refuse to admit patients covered by the NSSF unless they also have private insurance," a statement from the fund reads. "Some have had the audacity to say they were not under contract with the NSSF."
Some hospitals are "insisting on exceeding the laws and ethics, despite having benefited for more than 50 years from the fund's money," the NSSF said, explaining that a system of advances for hospitals was set up in 2011 by the fund's director-general, Mohammad Karaki." Karaki was not available for comment.
The NSSF's decision comes as political negotiations are in full swing for the allocation of Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam's new government's portfolios, with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement eyeing the Ministry of Health.
Last September, Karaki, who is known to be close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, announced 90 percent coverage of the hospital bill and committed "to restore the NSSF health services to a level comparable to that before the crisis."
The acute financial and economic crisis plaguing Lebanon since 2019 has had serious consequences on the medical and hospital sector, and has impacted the amount of coverage provided various third-party payers.
The NSSF, whose rates were calculated in Lebanese pounds, severely devalued since the crisis began, faces many problems in particular with private hospitals, which consider the fund's coverage to be insufficient when compared with the new rates dictated by the crisis.
With more than half of the population living in "multi-dimensional" poverty, steep hospital fees prevent countless people from receiving the healthcare they need.