Even though an increasing number of customers are utilizing private medical services, the sector is grappling with a debt amounting to nearly 182 million PLN. Despite the rising costs of packages, the number of indebted medical clinics is also increasing; there are now 2974 in the National Debt Register database. However, this does not lower the creditworthiness of companies in this sector – the scoring of the industry remains high. However, there are also serious threats lurking from another side.
Patients are increasingly choosing private clinics, medical offices, rehabilitation and physiotherapy rooms, or nursing and midwifery practices. According to data from the Polish Chamber of Insurance (PIU), 4.8 million Poles decided to pay for such services last year, 600,000 more than in 2022.
Unfortunately, customers of private medical facilities have to dig deeper into their pockets. According to estimates from Aon Polska, an insurance broker and risk management service, prices have risen by an average of 20% since 2022. However, many employers still offer such subscriptions as a benefits package to their employees.
“Despite the high interest of customers, the debts of private medical clinics amount to almost 182 million PLN. Almost 3000 entities have unpaid invoices to their creditors. The average debt per private medical facility is 61,000 PLN. Ironically, the growing number of patients does not correlate with decreasing debts, which have increased by 9 million PLN compared to the same period last year. Inflation has caused the prices of services and medical procedures to rise sharply. In addition, many medical professionals have loans and leasing agreements, which due to the still high interest rates, have proven difficult to manage,” says Adam Łącki, President of the National Debt Register’s Board of Directors.
The most indebted private medical facilities are in the Mazovia region, which owe their creditors 45.8 million PLN. This region is also home to a record holder who owes a bank and two companies – a leasing and a collection company – 4 million PLN. In second place with a debt exceeding 24 million PLN is the Silesia region, followed by Lesser Poland with overdue financial liabilities amounting to 16.3 million PLN.
Private medical clinics owe secondary creditors, such as securitization funds and collection companies, 78 million PLN. Over 56 million PLN is debt towards banks. Additionally, the medical sector owes leasing companies 16.3 million PLN. Furthermore, medical professionals are in arrears with mobile and fixed-line operators 4.6 million PLN, and owe power suppliers 2.3 million PLN.
“Using credit and leasing, owners of private medical facilities finance the equipment of the office with devices, furniture or software, and the purchase of cars. This way, they avoid making large expenses all at once. Unfortunately, they are not always able to balance the revenue from operations with the costs of running them, which has increased significantly over the past year. Medical professionals had to face large price increases for energy or rent, resulting in problems with timely debt settlements. The largest financial burden for medics are leasing and loan installments, followed by fixed fees for utilities,” explains Adam Łącki.
Nearly 3/4 of the debt (73%) in the private medical care industry is owed by sole proprietors, who have obligations to creditors that amount to 136.8 million PLN. Meanwhile, the debts of 27% of commercial law companies total nearly 45 million PLN.
Despite the growing debt of medical clinics, the private medical services sector is still characterized by a high level of payment credibility. From the July scoring of the National Debt Register, it appears that more than 97% of entities have the three highest scores (A, B, and C). Therefore, the potential transaction risk may concern a relatively small group of companies. However, it should be noted that the percentage of the most creditworthy companies has shrunk by 3.6% in the last 12 months, but it has grown in all other categories.
The rising debt is not the only significant problem of private medical care. As indicated by the “Cybersecurity in Polish companies 2023” report prepared by Vecto, the health care sector is particularly vulnerable to hacker attacks, next to the banking sector and public administration. This is confirmed by data leaks from non-public facilities.
In March this year, as a result of hacking servers of the booking software provider, cybercriminals stole and then published personal data of patients from DCG Centrum Medyczne, All-Med, and Nowa 5 online. The same thing happened to people using services of CDT Medicus in June.
“Doctors and facilities providing private medical services are spending a lot of money on equipping clinics with equipment affecting the quality of diagnosis and speed of treatment. However, they often forget about observing basic cybersecurity rules, exposing patients’ personal data to theft by hackers. Confirmed leaks from large clinics often store data on servers of external companies, which implement security against hacker attacks. However, some clinics have failed to protect themselves despite this. One can guess that an even lower level of protection prevails in individual medical practices. Our research shows that only 35% of micro-businesses have installed complete versions of antivirus software on office computers, and only 40% secure files and folders with passwords. It is no surprise then that patient data poses an easy target for hackers,” warns Bartłomiej Drozd, an expert of the ChronPESEL.pl service.
A data leak of a patient from a private medical facility can be quite costly for it. The Personal Data Protection Office recently imposed a penalty of almost 1.5 million PLN on the company American Heart of Poland. Hackers stole the personal data of 21,000 patients and employees from the company.
The study was conducted by TGM Research on behalf of ChronPESEL.pl and the National Debt Register, under the auspices of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) in May 2024, using an online interview (CAWI) on a sample of 400 representatives of micro, small, and medium enterprises meeting the decision-making criteria and processing personal data.
Source: https://managerplus.pl/rosnace-zadluzenie-i-cyberzagrozenia-oto-choroby-prywatnej-sluzby-zdrowia-13021
