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Rabat – Morocco’s National Fund for Social Welfare Organizations (CNOPS) has announced that it will not be reimbursing diagnostic and treatment expenses related to COVID-19.
The decision concerns all COVID-19 expenses, including biological analyses, diagnostic radiological examinations, medicines, and hospital stays.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is identified as being a force majeure, in accordance with the provisions of articles 95, 268 and 269 of the dahir relating to the code of obligations and contracts,” Morocco’s state media quoted CNOPS as saying.
CNOPS’s recent memo also argued that the COVID-19 pandemic is “one of the diseases of an epidemic nature exempt from payment for services and benefits provided by hospitals and services under the Ministry of Health.”
“[COVID-19] does not appear among the components of the priority health program giving the right to reimbursement and payment of the related care by the managing bodies, in accordance with the provisions of article 7 of law 65-00 on the code of basic medical coverage,” CNOPS explained.
Public health facilities and military field hospitals offer COVID-19 care for free. Screening tests are also free at public facilities for people with symptoms of the virus.
Public health facilities, however, often experience crowding. Contacts of confirmed virus carriers are referred to public hospitals for tests unless a person wants to carry out the test at a private health facility.
At private clinics, prices for COVID-19 tests range between MAD 800 and 1,200 ($87 and ($131). Some private laboratories offer tests at MAD 350 ($38).
In addition, some clinics ask patients to undergo scans to observe to what extent their lungs are affected by the virus.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Morocco is increasing with over 1,000 daily infections.
Morocco has reported 43,558 COVID-19 cases as of August 17, including 29,941 recoveries.
The number of deaths reached 681.
The number of active cases receiving medical care reached 12,936.
