Hewlett-Packard Co has been chosen as the prime contractor by VZP, which stands for the Czech for Universal Health Insurance Co, to set up computer systems to handle health care for the Czech Republic: the value of the contract is estimated at about $10.5m; VZP, established late last year by the Czech National Council, is charged with replacing the previous no-cost centralised health-care model; sister republic Slovakia is expected to set up its own health-care system in the near future; the planned Unix system will be installed at VZP headquarters in Prague and at 75 branch offices within the Czech Republic and will handle all payments to doctors, hospitals and pharmacies; record keeping for the 10m eligible insured persons and the collection of insurance-premium payments will officially begin at the start of 1993; the system will use the Oracle relational database management system as well as applications developed by APP Systems, a Czechoslovakian software developer; the other member of the team is Cap Gemini Sogeti SA; disappointed bidders included IBM, ICL and Siemens.
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