[SINGAPORE] The Ministry of Health (MOH) is considering the possibility of a new not-for-profit private hospital as part of measures to combat overcharging, said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung in a social media post on Tuesday (Jul 1).
Should MOH proceed with this option, it will take a few years for the hospital to be established.
The ministry has intervened in a number of ways, such as introducing fee benchmarks to guide pricing and guard against overcharging. Since the introduction of fee benchmarks in 2018, over 90 per cent of cases fall within the surgeon fee benchmarks. Average annual growth in private surgeon fees has also fallen from 3 per cent between 2010 and 2018 to 0.4 per cent from 2019 to 2023.
“We are now studying the possibility of going beyond professional fees, by introducing more benchmarks for hospital charges, to guide fee setting by private hospitals,” said Ong.
MOH has also taken action against doctors who have made errant claims, putting them through a refresher course on fee setting or suspending them from claiming from MediSave or MediShield Life.
“Ultimately, private insurers need to take a hard and realistic look at their product design, particularly those of riders,” said the minister.
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When someone is footing almost the entire medical bill, the healthcare provider-patient dynamic changes, with the tendency to use more than necessary. The likelihood of a patient with a rider making a claim is 1.4 times that of a patient without, and the size of the claim is on average 1.4 times higher as well.
As premiums are raised to cover costs, policyholders are unhappy, with more patients with private insurance now opting for subsidised healthcare.
“As it is, public healthcare accounts for around 80 per cent of hospital beds in Singapore but provides care for 90 per cent of all inpatients. It will come under increasing pressure,” said Ong.
The post comes in the wake of Great Eastern temporarily suspending pre-authorisation for Mount Elizabeth hospitals. Mount Elizabeth hospitals’ parent IHH has said that it was suprised by the unilateral move by the insurer while discussions were still under way.
The minister noted that most insurers have made some effort, with affordable rider alternatives with half the premiums on the most generous coverage.
These riders can help to dull the incentives to over-service and over-charge while still protecting against large cash co-payments.
“The recent moves by insurers may be disconcerting, but we need to see them against this broader context and the need to set the private healthcare financing system on a more sustainable footing,” said Ong.
