SINGAPORE:
The Health Ministry (MOH) is “seriously considering” making it mandatory for
clinics on the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) to issue invoices with an
itemised breakdown of fees, said Minister of State for Health Dr Lam Pin Min,
adding that details would be announced soon.
He said
this in Parliament on Monday (Jul 11) in response to questions from Members of
Parliament regarding the scheme, which allows low and middle-income households
to receive subsidies when they visit participating General Practitioners (GPs)
and dental clinics.
Dr Lam
said close to 300 complaints were made against General Practitioner (GP) and
dental clinics on CHAS between 2013 and last year - or about about 100 a year.
The
Minister of State said about half the complaints were related to charges at
participating clinics, including incorrect billing and high fees. He added that
other complaints included operational issues, such as incorrect subsidy
amounts, refusal by the clinic to provide itemised billing and concerns over
the professionalism of the medical practitioner.
For each
of the complains, the Agency of Integrated Care (AIC) has engaged the clinic
involved to seek clarification, said Dr Lam. Where the complaint was due to
fees, AIC would review the bill breakdown and explain to the patient if the
fees were due to a lengthy consultation period or due to medications
prescribed.
Dr Lam
said the Agency would also work with the clinic if there was a need to correct
the bill.
The
scheme came under scrutiny recently, when reports surfaced of two dental
clinics being suspended for fraudulent claims, including claiming for
procedures that were not carried out. The clinics are in Ang Mo Kio and Marine
Parade.
Dr Lam
said these two clinics have been referred to the Police for investigation. “A
couple” of other clinics have also been referred to the police for
investigation, he added.
“MOH
conducts very regular audits on CHAS claims and we do look into the clinics
compliance according to the existing CHAS guidelines," said Dr Lam.
"If we do receive feedback or complaints from residents, we will audit the
clinic in more detail to ascertain the rationale and how charges are being
made. If we find that there is misconduct, we will not hesitate to take action
against the doctors”.
NUMBER OF
COMPLAINTS SMALL IN RELATION TO TOTAL NUMBER OF CLAIMS: MOH
Dr Lam
also refuted that these incidents were "the tip of the iceberg". He
said that despite concerns of overcharging, the fact was that the number of
complaints were small in relation to the total number of claims made, which
shows that most clinics are reasonable in their charges and practice.
There
were close to 5.8 million claims made during the 2-year-period, he noted.
Nonetheless,
Dr Lam encouraged clinics to actively engage their patients, and to display
their clinics’ common charges prominently, as well as provide itemised receipts
upon request. He added that patients should also check their bills and alert
the Ministry on any concerns, especially since different CHAS clinics have
different charges.
Member of
Parliament for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, Mr Liang Eng Hwa, also asked if there
were plans to merge the Blue and Orange CHAS cards into one, as there were more
low-income Blue chardholders.
“The
cut-off for the household monthly income per person criteria set at S$1,100 is
too low to qualify for the Blue card," Mr Liang said. "Will the
Ministry consider reviewing this threshold given that medical expenses have
gone up. Are there plans to merge the Blue and Orange cards given that the
Orange cards are not as popular?"
Dr Lam
said the Health Ministry will regularly review the subsidy quantum and scope of
coverage of the Scheme, including its eligibility criteria.
Currently,
blue CHAS cardholders receive more subsidies than orange cardholders as they
come from families that earn a household monthly income of S$1,100 of below per
person.
There are
currently close to 1.4 million Singaporeans under the scheme, of which about 400,000
are those from the Pioneer Generation. Excluding the Pioneer Generation, close
to 600,000 were blue CHAS cardholders, while 400,000 were orange cardholders.
- CNA/mo
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