According to a report by the Court of Audit published on Thursday, the Graz City Health Care Institute (KFA) is seriously affected. An expert committee must now clarify whether insurance for approximately 10,000 Styrian civil servants can still be saved.
Rarely has a report from the audit office of the city of Graz been so sharply formulated. Already on the first pages it is stated in large letters: “The KFA is a risk for the city of Graz, for its insured persons and for itself. Its continued existence would be expensive for the taxpayers and insured people of Graz.”
The small but excellent health insurer for the approximately 10,000 employees and pensioners in the Styrian capital has been under financial pressure since the Corona pandemic at the latest. Even more worrying is the fact that virtually none of the expert recommendations from 2005 (the Court had already identified a long list of shortcomings) were implemented.
Sick pay from the 4th day
One thing is especially expensive for the KFA: unlike all other communities in Styria, Graz’s contract employees must receive sick leave from the fourth day instead of the seventh week and they have to pay for this themselves as a community. “The KFA also reimburses higher prices for medicines than other health insurers,” according to the nearly 100-page report.
Main criticisms of the examiners led by Hans-Georg Windhaber:
- The administrative system is “completely outdated”in addition “uneconomical And very error prone“.
- Die economic situation are “insecure”.
- Die IT are “Hopefully old-fashioned“.
- Die Organization are “unstructured”.
- There are “Services and persons without any right “Paid out”.
- Bills are “insufficient Documentation“was simply released.
- The Control environment are “arm” been.
“In short: hardly anything has been found in the field of management and leadership in recent decades. In fact, the same problems that inspections revealed twenty years ago still exist,” the paper says verbatim.
Mayor pulls the emergency brake
Mayor Elke Kahr’s office recently said that current KFA head Klaus Frölich, who was considered a confidante of former city boss Siegfried Nagl, would retire soon, while Anita Tscherne (from the human resources and legal affairs department) will update the management agenda would take on. an interim basis.
Now there are two options for the future: either the insured persons are transferred to the BVAEB (Insurance Company for Civil Servants, Railways and Mining) or the insurance company is split up and completely reorganized.
“We have now had our own investigation conducted and are neutral about all necessary measures. We will adhere to the results of the expertise,” Mayor Kahr’s office said. Addendum: “From our point of view, there are only two conditions: the city must be able to pay for the new approach and there must be no disadvantages for the insured.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
