Newsroom
A private hospital working under Cyprus’ General Health System (GESY) has landed itself in hot water after repeatedly dragging its feet on paperwork, and it’s now being hit with a €30,000 fine.
According to Phileleftheros, the Health Insurance Organization (HIO) decided to pull the trigger on the penalty after the hospital failed, yet again, to submit compensation claims on time. And this wasn’t just a case of slow admin. The delays started to cause real knock-on problems across the system.
Under GESY rules, hospitals have 45 days after a patient is discharged to submit their claims. Miss that deadline and the system shuts the door, literally. Once it “locks,” the process is handed over to the HIO to sort out manually.
That’s exactly what happened here.
Because the hospital kept missing deadlines, the HIO had to step in and register claims itself just to make sure providers got paid for services that had already been delivered. But while payments were eventually secured, the mess didn’t stop there.
Patient records also took a hit.
With claims submitted late, beneficiaries’ medical histories weren’t being updated on time, creating gaps in the system, the kind that can trip up other doctors and providers who rely on accurate, up-to-date information.
HIO Director Konstantinos Panayides explained that the system isn’t flexible by design. The 45-day window exists for a reason, and once it closes, there’s no workaround for providers. At that point, responsibility shifts to the organization, and repeated delays force intervention.
Panayides noted that fines have been imposed before for similar breaches, though not always at this level. In this case, the €30,000 fine was seen as necessary to bring the hospital back in line.
