Central Bohemian hospitals to receive regional loan

Representatives in Central Bohemia have agreed on a loan for four regional hospitals in financial trouble, hospitals that did not renew contracts with the Czech Republic's largest state-run insurance company, the VZP this January. The region is willing to lend the hospitals 50 million crowns - the equivalent of around 2.1 million US dollars - to cover losses for the care of VZP clients, which the insurer has not covered. The hospitals will have to repay their debts as soon as they receive VZP payments, at the latest by the end of 2006. Both Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek and the Health Minister David Rath have promised that the VZP will retroactively cover the cost of care.