BEIRUT: The American University of Beirut Medical Center said Friday the cost of some of its services and products have been adjusted to the exchange rate of LL3,900 to the dollar.

In statement clarifying the price modifications, AUBMC said they have been applied to some services or products whose costs have skyrocketed in the market and simply cannot be offered at the previous price anymore.

Although self-payers are affected by the change, the new prices do not impact any governmental or public third-party payers including NSSF, Health Ministry, Lebanese Armed Forces, and Internal Security Forces, the statement added.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan tried to reassure anxious Lebanese Thursday that the price of hospital fees and medicines would not increase, as the head of the Private Hospitals Syndicate warned that hospitals would soon adjust their pricing of the dollar.

Hasan was responding to news that private hospitals would soon start pricing the dollar at LL3,900. This would mean that patients could expect to pay around 60 percent more for treatment than when the official exchange rate of LL1,507.5 is used.

"The decision of forced price adjustment does not concern AUBMC alone and is in alignment with other medical centers in Lebanon, which are also acutely impacted by the economic deterioration in Lebanon," the statement said.

Lebanon is going through a severe financial crisis that has seen the local currency plunge by 80 percent against the dollar in under a year. The Lebanese pound is currently trading at around LL8,450 to the dollar.

Year on year inflation hit 120 percent in August 2020, according to Central Administration of Statistics. Due to BDL subsidies, the price of medicine increased by just 1.4 percent between Aug. 2019 and Aug. 2020. Unsubsidized goods that are mainly imported saw huge price increases. Alcohol and tobacco, for instance, shot up 540 percent during that period.

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