WILLEMSTAD - The Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) has reached an agreement with the Country Curaçao and the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) about the quality of services, production, efficiency objectives and rates for the coming years. The agreement entered into force on November 15. With the CMC operational, care is now guaranteed in a modern hospital where both the quality of care and patient safety are central. After a thorough analysis, it has become apparent that due to a large increase in supply and facilities, adaptation of the hospital and operation rates is necessary and justified. The overall position of the Minister of Health, Environment and Nature that was taken from the general means (the budget of the Country of Curaçao) no premium increases will be implemented to finance the CMC.
In order to arrive at the correct tariff structure, an independent consultancy firm was engaged who has made an extensive analysis. This analysis compared the new situation at the CMC with the situation at St. Elisabeth Hospital (SEHOS). Because the new CMC has invested heavily in, among other things, more support staff, more medical specialists and modern medical facilities, the annual operating costs are higher. An important principle in the new tariff structure is the disappearance of the distinction between type of patients and how they pay - SVB or Private - for the entire hospital catchment area of Curaçao. It has been agreed that from now on all local patients will be subject to one and the same rate of 1.2% on top of the previously calculated cost price. However, not only patients from Curaçao are welcome in the brand new modern hospital, the CMC is also open to patients from outside the local hospital catchment area. As patients, they do pay more for the use of the facilities compared to locals. Patients from Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Maarten and Aruba pay an average of 18% on top of the cost price. Tourists pay 100% on top of the cost price.
Substantial investment in medical specialists and the most modern equipment
In addition to more staff, compared to SEHOS, the capital charges (consisting of interest and repayments on the loans needed to realize the new CMC) also lead to additional operational costs for the CMC. Furthermore, as a digital hospital, the costs of depreciation for information technology and medical equipment must be included in the cost price calculation and of course also the better-quality facilities. In addition to additional staff, the number of medical specialists employed will continue to rise in the coming years in the sense that new established medical specialists will be employed by the CMC. For the admitted specialists, a transitional arrangement - AOW arrangement - now applies, whereby the age of 65 is used as a limit with a maximum extension to 68 years. This makes the costs that have to be covered by the hospital business-wise higher, but ultimately that will not lead to an increase in the total healthcare costs in our country, because a medical specialist employed by the CMC ultimately costs around 30% of a self-employed medical specialist.
In addition, the SEHOS had three different classes with rates from ANG 340 in the 3rd class to ANG 714 in the 1st class. No class system is applied in the CMC. However, due to the greatly improved quality of the facilities, CMC's spacious rooms and the capital charges, the cost per room was set at 1512 guilders. This is mainly because the integral costs of the building and capital charges are taken into account here and spreading these costs through an increase in production / efficiency is only possible to a limited extent. Furthermore, the increase in employees, specialists and facilities means that it is now possible to have many more treatments in the CMC. Although this leads to an increase in the operating costs of the CMC as a hospital, it also leads to higher production, a much more efficient use of the available facilities, much better treatment options, but at the same time also to a significant reduction in the costs of sending abroad, which is somewhat on its turn a saving on costs that will result in the total health care budget. Incidentally, not all CMC rates will rise. For example, the rates for radiology, dialysis OR procedures and the laboratory remain stable. Most other rates do increase and, in some cases, due to the cost price principle, compared to the fixed rates from 2009. An overview of all rates can be found on the CMC website, www.cmc.cw.
