Pharmacists in the greater Athens area have warned that they will stop providing customers insured with state health care provider EOPYY with medical supplies and equipment on credit as of Monday unless the organization settles at least part of its mounting debt.
According to daily Kathimerini, it is understood that EOPYY had settled its debts up until January with fewer than half of the 3,100 pharmacies in the Greek capital by the end of last week. In a controversial move, EOPYY on Friday went on to pay some of the pharmacies up until February at a time when many of their competitors have not received any money this year.
“Some pharmacies in Athens have been paid until January, others have been paid until February, others have only been paid for February, and others have not been paid at all,” the president of Attica’s pharmacists, Constantinos Lourantos, told Kathimerini.
“On August 1 we shall stop providing supplies on credit,” he warned, adding that the association would formally announce its decision on Monday.
On top of pharmacists in Athens and Piraeus, businesses in Pella and Kilkis, in northern Greece, are also expected to follow suit, Kathimerini notes.
Pharmacists in Thessaloniki have also warned, they won’t be able to provide insured patients with diabetes, orthopedic and respiratory equipment due to the outstanding debts from EOPYY.
PS A never ending story: when interest groups have problems with the state and its bodies, it is always the citizen who pays the price, especially the needy one. I hope, i tis just a warning shot in the air and pharmacists will not make their warning come true.
I have an uncle who is a doctor in the north of greece. The various state insurance entities (IKA, OGA, TEBE, ETAM, and so on) were as much as _three years_ behind in paying him for patients he’d served, but, big surprise, the tax man wanted his cut from day 1. Eventually there was no way to keep it going and he went bankrupt and closed his practice 4 years ago and sold off whatever he could. One more success story for the marxists in power.