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Private clinics pilot set to launch

Chain to consolidate small independent practices

By Riva Froymovich
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 30th, 2007 issue

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The first corporate-modeled office for private doctors will open in the Czech Republic this summer under the direction of Marek Potysz, the force behind the country’s largest network of private hospitals.
“It’s common in the world to provide primary health care in primary care groups [PCGs]. It will work in the Czech Republic as well,” said Potysz, who previously served as chief executive of Agel, the private hospital chain.
The PCG network, called Moje ambulance, will connect private doctors from separate offices under one roof and boss, Potysz. The pilot program will launch in Ostrava, north Moravia, in a few months, once the contract process for new medical employees is completed. Potysz is reportedly buying out private practices for between 300,000 Kč ($14,272) and 700,000 Kč.
“We’ll take care of patients in all areas of general practitioner medicine,” Potysz said. “The foremost advantages for patients are operating hours through the day till evening, no waiting times for treatment — due to a functional scheduling system — and a call center.”
Affiliation with a company will provide financial security for private practitioners and allow them to focus on patients, rather than paperwork and insurance companies, Potysz said.
“Physicians today are working through their own contracts with health insurance companies,” he said. “But dealing with health insurance is very difficult today. It’s overregulated. There are many fees and regulations. Many [doctors] don’t want to deal with the health insurance companies. For many of them, it’s more comfortable to have set hours and a set salary.”
In addition, there are many general practitioners nearing retirement, and they have few opportunities to cash in on the assets of their business, namely clients and reputation, he added. “There’s almost no one who can buy their practice,” according to Potysz.
Other benefits for doctors working with Moje ambulance include about a 10,000 Kč per month increase over the average privatepractice salary, to 40,000 Kč per month. Doctors will also receive a company car for professional and private use.
However, the Czech Medical Chamber (ČLK) is not sold on Moje ambulance and thinks Potysz’s fancy numbers and benefits will leave independent private practices in the dust.
“We are talking monopolization and the creation of ‘health supermarket chains,’ ” said Milan Kubek, the chamber’s president. “These chains will create unfair competition for other healthcare institutions. There is a great danger that the price competition will result in lower quality and individual doctors will not be able to compete with those health supermarkets.”
In addition, doctors with their own practices have to meet certain quality requirements, Kubek said. If you are an employee, though, it is enough to have a “guarantor” — a senior doctor who supervises the staff — and that can lower the quality of service, he said.
Plus, when doctors refer patients elsewhere, they will likely refer them to doctors within Moje ambulance, Kubek said.
“ČLK will try to do everything to hinder this project,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Health Ministry is preparing fertile ground for it.”
The chamber is critical of new reforms proposed by the Health Ministry and approved by the Cabinet last week, which will favor corporate medical practices like Moje ambulance.
Such practices don’t need any help, since they’ll already be favored by insurance companies, said Kubek. Since insurers typically choose which doctors they want to sign contracts with depending on the doctor’s client base and services, smaller doctors, with smaller account books, won’t be able to compete.
The Health Ministry is encouraging the establishment of private healthcare institutions in general, said David Přinesdom, spokesman for the ministry.
It has aided in the privatization of hospitals in central Bohemia, which began the transfer into joint-stock companies earlier this month.
“It is true that private institutions can, apart from exceptional cases, provide more effective and better care and services than the state,” Přinesdom said.
The benefits for doctors in private practice are obvious too, according to Přinesdom. They usually make more money than they would working for the state since they are not limited by state pay charts, which are based on years of experience. Plus, private doctors don’t have to answer to a boss, he said.
That is, until now.
Potysz says he is not receiving any assistance from the government in building Moje ambulance and that the starting capital of 5 million Kč comes from his own pocket. He hopes to open other clinics before the end of the year.
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Riva Froymovich can be reached at rfroymovich@praguepost.com


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