Junta loses AIDS medication demand

QUESTIONING a court ruling, the regional government insists it is entitled to charge for a patient’s AIDS medication.

Civil servant Jose Javier Diez was diagnosed with an HIV infection in Jaen and treated with drugs for two-and-a-half years. The regional health service, SAS, later reclaimed the €10,000 cost because Diez is covered by Asisa health insurance.
The Junta put Diez in a vulnerable situation, according to the sentence, and neglected its duty of care.
Private insurance is involved, argued Maria Jesus Montero, head of the Junta’s Health Department. It is ‘logical’ and ‘obligatory’ to reclaim the cost of Diez’s treatment at Jaen’s Complejo Hospitalario, she insisted, and the Junta is entitled to seek it.
In Diez’s case, however, the SAS went directly to the patient, and not the insurance company. Asked by El Mundo newspaper if it would have been more logical to approach Asisa, a ‘visibly annoyed’ Montero refused to answer.