Sytuacja ekonomiczna spółek uzdrowiskowych w okresie transformacji

The economic situation of spa companies in the transformation period

The introduction of the healthcare reform in 1999 coincided with transforming state-owned spa companies into trade law companies. It was also connected with the change of supervision from the Ministry of Health into Ministry of the Treasury. The newly created companies had to immediately adapt to the demands of the National Health Fund as well as to the growing competition on the market of spa healthcare services. The contracts signed with the National Health Fund, which monopolizes the market of healthcare services, did not guarantee safe functioning. Various actions had to be taken:  searching for other sources of financing healthcare services (ZUS National Health Insurance, KRUS - National Health Insurance in Agriculture, full payment health resort visitors)  lowering the costs with the constant growth of customers' demands  restructuring employment  The resources taken over as a result of transforming state-owned spa companies are among others: constant property, circulating property, private capital and personnel. 'The changes of these elements have been illustrated in chart 1 and 2. The fact of reducing employment is disturbing, as these companies are the major work places in heath resorts.  The third chart presents consumers of health resort services. There is a growing tendency in expenses on health resort in the years 1999-2000, but the level of flnancing from 1998 has not been reached. The number of individual full payment consumers is increasing. On the one hand, it is the result of marketing, but on the other hand it is the tendency of active and healthy rest in resorts. Charts 4 and 5 present the chosen economic and financial values characterizing the working of the spa companies. Analysing them proves the need for instant decisions about further directions of functioning of the spa companies. Discontinued privatization of these companies leads to the discouragement of employees who bear the consequences of transformation as well as the decapitalisation of wealth due to the lack of finances for modernizing the existing base and new investments.