The Association of Croatian Patients Calls for Immediate Halt to Enforcement Due to Unpaid Contributions

The Association of Croatian Patients requested on Saturday that Minister of Health Milan Kujundžić urgently amend regulations and halt enforcement actions for debts as low as 25 kuna, and asks the minister to investigate this case and find a better solution for collecting such small amounts of debt.

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In a letter sent by Drlje to Minister Kujundžić and the director of the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) Fedor Dorčić, it is emphasized that the Association of Croatian Patients has been approached by several patients in recent days asking for advice on what they can do after receiving enforcement notices from the Clinical Hospital Center (KBC) Zagreb for a debt from 2014, amounting to a principal of 25 kuna, but there are also larger and smaller amounts.

Patients Received Enforcement Notices, Claim They Were Not Informed of the Debt

Patients state that they were unaware of the debts and that no one informed them about it.

“Is such a regulation that allows this a disgrace for the state, hospitals, and society as a whole that enforcement proceedings are initiated for an amount of 25 kuna, especially a procedure that brings further costs to patients from public notaries and especially lawyers amounting to 688 kuna,” emphasized the president of the Association, Drlje.

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To resolve this issue, the Association of Croatian Patients proposes that debtors first receive warnings and be given a deadline, for example, of 15 days, to settle their obligations or that a note be added to the discharge letter (which is sent later by mail and incurs no additional costs) stating that there is a debt that must be settled within the specified period.

Drlje also raised the question of what will happen in the judicial system if every patient writes an appeal against the enforcement.

“We ask you on behalf of the impoverished Croatian people to investigate how many such and similar enforcement actions exist and try to prevent them and find some other less painful way to collect the principal of 25 kuna and similar small amounts,” concluded Drlje.

The Bill for Contribution Did Not Arrive, But the Enforcement Notice Did

One of the individuals who received an enforcement proposal from KBC Zagreb is Gordan Lauc, a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry in Zagreb, who posted on his Facebook profile that he received an enforcement proposal from KBC Zagreb for a debt of 25 kuna.

As he has no time for ‘court wrangling’, he paid the costs that rose to nearly 700 kuna, but at the same time filed a criminal complaint with the State Attorney’s Office.

In that complaint, he expressed suspicion that the law firm that sent him the enforcement proposal colluded with the KBC management to form a “criminal organization for the purpose of obtaining undue profit.”

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Lauc noted in his post that the debt arose because he received ointment for ear inflammation at KBC Rebro in 2015, which they could not charge him for because it was too late. They told him they would send him a bill for 25 kuna in contributions, which they never did, but now he has received an enforcement notice for nearly 700 kuna.

He expressed doubt as to whether they accidentally forgot to send the bill or if it was done intentionally, and he asked on Facebook if anyone else had experienced something similar.