Final Word from Thursday, November 10, 2005
David Rath is becoming one of the CR's biggest financial managers. Not only is he writing a multi-billion-crown drug policy, but he's also taking direct control today of VZP health insurer, according to Právo. VZP has been blamed for late payments to doctors and hospitals, and it certainly has room for cost-cutting. It's the doctors, though, who make the decisions about which drugs to prescribe, which treatments to order, and whether to sign sick notes. The high worker-absentee rate is largely the fault of the doctors. Rath has been in charge of them in one form or another for the past decade. He has gotten where he is by bribing them with higher salaries and by glossing over their responsibility for the state of healthcare. If Dr. Rath had a conflict of interest as health minister and head of the Medical Chamber, he has an even bigger moral conflict of interest as de facto financial manager of VZP. [Czech Republic chief financial offer medicine Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna absenteeism]