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YOUR MEDICAL BILLS ARE GOING UP!

Quality healthcare is the responsibility of the government and should not be left to private companies that dish out expensive bills.

In fact, more than 60 percent of private hospitals, by bed numbers, are owned by the government through government-linked companies such as Sime Darby, Petronas, KPJ (Kumpulan Perubatan Johor) and Pantai Holdings Berhad.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/255953

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DOCTORS LOVE THIS MAN, THEIR PRESIDENT,Dr NKS Tharmaseelan. If he had more say, the hike in private medical costs would have been HIGHER.

Read this, and tell me that you belive him!

“Though we accept the fee increase of only 14% after 12 years , it is solely because as doctors we put service before ourselves as per the Hippocratic Oath.”

Long ago, I stopped believing that doctors considered the Hippocratic Oath important enough to forgo their PROFITS.

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Free Malaysia Today

MMA: Medical fee hike not high enough

Malaysians must realise that healthcare costs in Malaysia is among the cheapest in the world, says Malaysian Medical Association.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr NKS Tharmaseelan said that the Health Ministry’s move to increase medical consultation and procedure fees by 14% was unfair and unsatisfactory.

“But we have to accept it for now and we hope the government will review the fee when there is an upturn in the economy,” he said via e-mail to FMT.

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/03/06/mma-medical-fee-hike-not-high-enough/

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SHOCKING HIKES IN MEDICAL BILLS!

FACED WITH THE REVELATION THAT WE NOW KNOW ABOUT THE INCREASES IN PRIVATE MEDICAL CARE, THE HEALTH MINISTER HAS THIS TO SAY:

1. We are protecting you by capping the increases allowed.

2. Competition among doctors will keep their charges lower than the increases allowed.

Which of us would believe such UNTRUTHS?

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*Consultation fees are up 200%. From RM10-RM35 toRM30-RM125.
*Expecting a child? Pray that it won’t be by caesarean: up RM345, from RM2,365 (for both surgeon and anaesthetist) to RM2,710.
*Expect also an increase in insurance premiums for your medical policies.
*Some of you may discover your boss cutting back on your medical benefits, and you may even have to pay part of the bill in cash at the clinic.
*Doctors, as expected, support the ministry’s decision to hike the fees.

*http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/06/Employees-may-need-to-cough-up-cash-too/

*http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/06/Fees-up-and-its-dizzying-Medical-schedule-shows-hikes-of-more-than-200/

*http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/06/It-just-got-more-painful-for-mumtobe-with-increase-in-procedure-fee/

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Free Malaysia Today

‘Medical fee hike will burden consumers’

Consumer groups are against the medical consultation and procedures fee increase.

PETALING JAYA: Persatuan Aduan Rakyat chairman and former deputy minister T Murugiah today took the Health Ministry to task for increasing the fees for medical consultation and procedures.
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He said, “besides medical consultation, patients will also have to fork out extra money for other expenses such as hospital charges, medicines and miscellaneous.”

He is also concerned about the possibility of insurance companies increasing their premiums for medical insurance to absorb the extra charges.
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Meanwhile Fomca secretary-general Paul Selvaraj said that private clinics and hospitals should issue itemised bills in detail for transparency.

He said, “patients often encounter the totaled charges rather than itemised; which can be construed as too high or charged for unnecessary items.”

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/03/05/medical-fee-hike-will-burden-consumers/

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Malaysiakini

12:14PM Mar 5, 2014

MMA: Medical fees not raised for 12 years

Even as consternation grows over the revised medical fee schedule in the private healthcare sector, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said this is long overdue as the fees have not been increased for 12 years.

“There has been virtually no increase though the fee schedule is supposed to be revised every five years. The last review was in 2002, 12 years ago,” MMA president Dr NKS Tharmaseelan told Malaysiakini.

Tharmaseelan said the approved average hike of 14.5 percent for medical fees still lags behind the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/256084

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Malaysiakini

7:44AM Mar 4, 2014

Higher medical bills after hush-hush hike by gov’t

If you have fallen sick this year and feel your medical bill was much higher, you are probably right.

Much attention has been focused on price increases of food and petrol but, unknown to many, is an amendment to a schedule of the law that regulates fees for private healthcare services.

The amended 13th Schedule of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 was published in the federal gazette on Dec 16, 2013, providing for across-the-board increases in fees for medical consultation and procedures.

For example, the fee cap for first consultation with a general practitioner has been RM10 to RM35 – but the new amendment increases this to RM30 to RM125.

Likewise, for specialist doctors, the fee range for first consultation, which was between RM30 and RM125, has now increased to between RM80 and RM235.
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The price hike also includes dental services. For example, a non-surgical permanent removal of a tooth had a price range cap of RM40 to RM250 but it is now RM45 to RM285.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/255953

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Malaysiakini

4:38PM Mar 5, 2014

Medical fee hike to protect the people, says minister

The hike in medical consultation and procedure fees gazetted by the Health Ministry last December was done to protect the people and it was not done in secret, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam said today.

“There is nothing secretive about it,” Subramaniam told reporters at a press conference on the matter, which was raised by Malaysiakini yesterday.

He said the ministry amended the fees in order to impose a maximum fee cap so as to protect the people, while the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) had demanded higher increases.

“The MMA wanted a 30 percent increase, but we settled for an average 14 percent increase.

“The long delay was because of disagreements between the ministry and the stakeholders. But at the end of the day, the ministry put its foot down and gazetted it anyway,” Subramaniam said.

He insisted that consumers could still dictate the fees in the private medical industry, asking them to choose practitioners who charged lower rather than those who charged according to the maximum cap.

“There is no minimum cap here. And from my experience, doctors normally change in the mid-range and not the maximum amount. Only then will people come back to them,” Subramaniam, a doctor by profession, said.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/256136

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