Río Negro will invoice Chile for the care of hospital patients in the neighboring country | Chronic

The Río Negro government has signed an agreement to charge the Chilean state health care for patients from that country who cross the border from the Los Lagos region to hospitals in the province of Patagonia.

The signing of the agreement was made last Wednesday in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche by the health ministers of each region and includes the Chilean region of Los Lagos, which will badume the costs of the medical benefits of their patients. the inhabitants

Fabian Zgaib, responsible for the Río Negro Health portfolio, explained that they are going to "to work" with the Chilean provinces of Los Lagos and Los Ríos, which have come forward "very good predisposition"For "bill what the Rio Negro Public Hospital does".

This measure began with discussions between provincial governments, in the framework of the Patagonian Congress on hantavirus held last May in Bariloche and promoted by the city hospital.

Zgaib also expressed the possibility of reaching an agreement so that rionegrinos could also be treated in public hospitals in Chile. However, he stressed that his priority was the benefits provided by the Rio Negro Hospital, which would begin to pay for itself within 30 days, when the ministerial resolution will be issued.

"Putting this into practice is also very useful, because anything that helps to finance the public hospital in this crisis context is welcome."said the minister, who had revealed a few days ago the problem of supplying basic supplies in medical centers due to financial instability.

antecedents

This agreement is not the first in Argentina. Since 2004, the Zonal Hospital of the city of Esquel, in the Chubut region, receives once a week dozens of inhabitants of the Chilean cities of Chaitén, Futaleufú and Palena, with a medical order and a scheduled visit, then bill the services to the neighboring state.

Another case is the city of Pirehueico, Chile, which receives the bill with the expenses of its inhabitants who go to San Martín de los Andes, in Neuquén.

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Last March, the governments of Salta and Tarija also signed a reciprocal agreement and compensation of health costs for benefits and conditions guaranteeing the effective exercise of the right to health.

At the same time, the Jujuy legislature approved last February a law allowing the provincial health system to collect medical care provided to foreigners staying temporarily in the territory.