The article deals with the contractual situation of the Private Assistance Net linked up with the Unified Brazilian Health System (SUS). It describes this net based on data from Hospital Information System and from Ambulatory Information System. It shows the growth of the number of municipal public hospitals and the strong participation of university hospitals. In relation to the Ambulatory Net, the article demonstrates that it is mainly public. It analyses the contractual situation, based on data from the National Register of Health Establishments, database recently introduced by the Health Department which aims to aggregate all available information about public and private services. It points to the problems present in the process of hiring private health service suppliers. This work concludes that contracts may represent a larger accountability of managers and health service suppliers, besides the fact they make possible a stronger guarantee of users' rights and better quality of health services.
Unified Brazilian Health System; Private health services; Assistance net; National Register of Health Establishments; Contracts; Accountability; Users' right
