Topprofile

True has /"#&("/ up their DNS service... can't get anywhere unless you know the ipaddress...

Have they done it unintentionally or not?

In this case I don't have anything bad to say about the Doctor at BNH. He even helped make sure I got my money from the insurance company by writing a medical certificate explaining the problem and answering some questions that the insurance company came back with.

However I have another thread about BNH aswell that made up my mind about them. So, I have changed from BNH to Bangkok Christian Hospital instead as they are just as friendly and Doctors speak good english and doesn't overcharge you like other private hospitals.

Finally, yetsterday I got an answer back from Goodhealth saying they would accept my claim.

It took threats and 4 months to get to this.

After they read the Doctors written medical summary they changed their minds.

Thanks to Sheryl, Cigar7 and others who have helped.

//Rob

Source: http://www.d-trac.org/en/average_thai_wages

Average Thai Wages per Month

This section gives you a list of employment descriptions or positions and their average salary in Thailand. This information is also available in pdf format.

Source: National Statistical Office, First Quarter, 2005

Employment Description or Position Salary in THB

Fishing 2,968

Agriculture, hunting and forestry 3,019

Private households with employed persons 4,068

Construction 4,706

Hotels and restaurants 5,680

Other community and social work 6,311

Manufacturing 6,420

Wholesale and retail trade, repair business 6,760

Mining and quarrying 7,646

Real estate, renting and business activities 9,571

Health and social work 10,804

Public administration and defense 11,375

Transport, storage and communication 11,752

Education 14,883

Electricity, gas and water supply 17,841

Financial intermediation 19,325

Source: Board of Investment

Employment Description or Position Salary in THB

Housekeeper 6,532

Driver 8,528

Office staff 15,222

Public relations staff 16,635

Sales/marketing staff 23,785

Researcher (Thai) 24,722

Engineering 26,051

Executive Secretary 32,296

PC Programmer 22,000-35,000

Web Designer 25,000-35,000

System Analyst 40,000-45,000

Office Manager 47,994

Webmaster 45,000-60,000

Personnel/HRD director 71,222

Plant manager 73,396

###### 90,000-150,000

Source: Board of Investment

Minimum Daily Wage, by Location Salary in THB

Bangkok 170

Phuket 168

Phang Nga 145

Ranong 143

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Last updated on Thu, 2006-05-04 14:53

I have been away for a couple of days as me and my wife just got our first baby. We canceled everything with BNH and went to Bangkok Christian to have the delivery. One of the best moves we could make =)

The staff in Bangkok Christian has been the best and I highly recommend this hospital for delivering your babies. We paid about 36.000thb including 3 nights at the hospital. Everything just went fine!

The Doctors speak excellent english and some of the younger nurses also. Some of the older probably can speak english but might not want to..

Sheryl - if you have a fax or email address I can send you the journal to see if you can make something out of it. Please PM me if you have the time to do it.

Thank you

Rob

Some update on this case.

I managed to get hold of a Claims Manager at Goodhealth and he pointed out some things with my claim. On my "Pre-Certification Medical Form" the Doctor has written the following:

1. Condition Requiring Treatment: Recurrent Tonsilitis

2. First consultation date: 31/3/06

3. Has this condition existed before: NO

4. Symtoms apparent from: 12/12/05

So these lines are somewhat contradicting themselves. However it took me 10 emails and threats to sue them and cancel my policy before they pointed it out. I guess I didn't read all papers to closely to pay attention to this.

Anyway I got the doctor to write a medical summary that I have today faxed to Goodhealth's claims department saying:

1. Condition requiring treament was "Acute tonsilitis"

2. Patient has had a soar throat in the past and after discussions with patient the chance of this recurring again is high and therefor decission to perform tonsillectomy was made.

We will see what Goodhealth comes up with this time.

Thanks all for your input.

Well it seems as if you have to be a lawyer before you start dealing with insurance companies and a doctor before you go see one.

I plan to go see the doctor again during this or next week to try to determine where this has gone wrong.

Thanks alot for the input! I have learned a lesson and will in the future be more aware and question everything.

HAHA I see...

Well if Backflip cared to read the stories he would see that there are 1 issue for BNH and 1 issue for Goodhealth..

1 issue is for me personally and 1 is for my nephew.

Total of 2 posts... Sorry to flood your private forum..

Read before you post some incorrect statements.

But I guess you are working for BNH or just doesn't have anything constructive to add..

If you don't have anything to say why do you care reading this post or posting in this thread?

It seems as if I'm not the only one after all..

Thanks all for your info!

I have gotten hold of all journals today for my nephew and not sure if I understand anything from it.. but I will definitely look it thru and see if there is something suspicious about it.

Sheryl - There are 2 different things to this story.

1. My nephew came in with a inflamation in his scrotum that was taken care of the first day by seeing the doctor who prescribed him medicine.

2. After seeing the doctor and waiting to pay the panic attack hit him. He was hooked up for monitoring and given 2 shots of Adenocor and some other injections.

When I came to the hospital 30 minutes later he was already feeling fine.

The next morning Doctors told him that they would take him for ultrasound of the scrotum. This had already been taken care of on the first day!!

I have the journals in my hand but I cannot read what they say.. It's virtually impossible to read the handwriting and the EKG I don't understand anything from so.. I'm not sure what to do with them..

The OP has a couple threads open, regarding BNH. If he has had so many problems, as described in detail, why does he keep going to BNH? There are other hospitals in Bangkok...

What is OP?

Thanks

The policy is to not tell you what things will actually cost you...

Thanks

Rob

Knowing it is a private hospital, why didnt you ask how much it will cost, and whether it is necessary?

If, god forbid, something serious had happened to your nephew overnight the questions would be why didnt they do the tests.

I have used BNH once and I thought they were very good. The doctor gave me 2 options, one was fairly expensive and one wasn't. I asked him which one he would recommend, or which option he would take. He said try the cheaper one first. If it doesnt work, we can then try the more expensive one. The cheaper ooption worked fine.

Again! it wasn't me in the hospital.. But when I was there I asked what the cost would be for my nephew for staying over night for MONITORING (as that was the only thing the doctor told me they would do), and they told me 8500thb. The only thing they would do was to monitor him overnight!

As I left the hospital in the evening on the first day there was nothing wrong with him. He was laughing and making jokes already.. At this time the invoice was 10.800thb (not including the overnight)

However when I came back lunch time the next day the invoice was 40.000thb instead of the estimated 20.000thb. So the estimate was wrong with 20.000tbh because they decided to do extra tests and called in 2 more doctors for the original problem he came to vist for, which had NOTHING to do with him ending up in the ICU. They are not related and he had already seen a doctor for this and received medicine.

I didn't think I would have to sit there for 18hours until he was released to make sure they didn't do anything that he had already seen a doctor for or atleast inform him about why/what and how much... It would have been ok if they said "ok we are not sure what is going on here so we need to do some more test. we want to do this and this... to be sure. is it ok?"

Well that is not the way they go. They say "ok we're taking you downstairs for ultrasound" (even though he had got medicine for that problem already. ie different from the anxiety attack) and then later saying "you have to wear this tape recorder and come back to us tomorrow" (not telling him that it would cost him over 7.000thb (the tape recorder itself cost roughly 5500thb)

When I later asked the manager (cashier) the only answer I got was "Sorry we will try to inform you better next time".

These are the exact words from the manager!

Anyway, I just went to Bangkok Christian with my wife Friday for an examination of our coming baby and even it doesn't look like BNH both me and my wife actually felt more comfortable there than in BNH.

In BNH everything looks like a hotel and when you look at the nurses who seem to be in their 20's I don't feel very confident (thinking that the criteria for employment seems to be that they can't be over 25years old and have to look like a model). It's all about appearance.

However in Bangkok Christian, the nurses were a little bit older and talking to them made you confident that they knew what they were doing. At least that was what we felt. The doctor spoke exellent english with me and the service received on this first visit was at least as good as at BNH but about 3.500thb cheaper compared to the same thing in BNH (routine control with ultrasound for baby).

For me, it's not about the money... it's just a principle.. It's about taking advantage of the situation and milking patients of money. I will not tolerate beeing milked for money unless I have agreed to it .

The price of 75.000thb was in BNH Hospital. Send them an email and ask for a quotation and you'll see what they reply.

I had the tonsills removed and stayed over night. Price for room about 8000thb per night, the rest I guess is money for the Doctor's new house and new Mercedes 600 (and some for the shareholders)

The travel insurance only covered the first 45 days abroad (so we noticed)... And he has now been here for about 70 days.. So he missed that...

Sheryl - Thanks again! I will go to the hospital on Friday and ask for all records.

I sent the claims department an email yesterday evening saying that I have never been dignosed with chronic streptococcal tonsillitis and that this was in no way a pre-existing condition (as they claim). I told them if they will not solve this I will ask my lawyer to contact their ombudsman.

I got a reply back within 30 minutes saying that a manager would contact me... we'll see what happens.

The first quotation I got was an estimate cost iof 2,650 USD. But I managed to get it down... Well I guess that's what you get for going to Privatised Hotel Styled hospitals..

Sheryl - Thank you for your info! Really appreciate it!

Do you happen to know where I can contact the ombudsman? That should be a government agency or similar I guess in that country?

Thanks again!

Rob

Sheryl - Thanks for your information and suggestions. I will ask the hospital for the exact details about his arrythmia and what it was they saw during the night that caused concern to make him wear the taperecorder.

My nephew has been a semi-professional soccer player at top division up until about 6 months ago when he broke a leg and had to quit.

Backflip & pop_corn - you are not reading the story... It's not so much about what they did when my nephew felt dizzy and almost passed out. It is about saying that they want to monitor him over night and that the room and service fee would be about 8500thb (for a total of about 20.000thb) but when he is discharged the invoice is 20.000thb more than estimate BECAUSE they did extra tests for the original problem that he already got medicine for (where ultrasound and doctors fees alone were almost 9.000thb on the second day) and for a taperecorder that they never told him would cost him 7.000thb including doctors fees.

Pop_corn - So it is my fault that BNH charges him 20.000thb extra from the time I left the hospital in the evening until I came to pick him up at lunch time the next day? What does that have to do with the first 10 minutes? And even if I had been there the first 10 minutes it might have ended up in the same way anyway...

Sure I'm grown up, but when a 22 year old tourist comes to visit and not used to privatised hospitals you are almost certain to get ripped off unless you know exactly what they should do and not do. If you are not a doctor...

But you would probably argue and defend them, that if they had done an X-Ray of his foot while he was still in the hospital just to be sure he doesn't have anything wrong with his brain, that would have been ok as long as he doesn't oppose it.

Also if you read I wrote that I've had good experiences with BNH aswell and I changed from Bumrungrad to BNH as they (from my experience) seem to care more about you in BNH.

But now we're changing again.. I guess we'll try Bangkok Christian now.

The risk by "educating" yourself via Internet for instance is that your symptoms always looks like HIV, Cancer or some other deadly disease... I personally don't think it's a good idea to diagnose yourself.

My nephew is 22 years old and has never had a heart problem or any other problems for that matter... He probably just worked himself up due to the fact he was in the hospital alone..

He asked me to go with him but I was stuck in the office and he went alone.. when I came to see him he was already hooked up to these monitors and he was actually making jokes and laughing when we came to the hospital. Still the Doctors wanted to keep him overnight, and as my nephew was "OK" again we left hospital after 1 hour.

The thing is that they on the 2nd day performed additional "evaluations and examinations" for the first original problem that he already had got medicine for. They wouldn't have done that if he hadn't still been in the hospital. If they thought that was needed why didn't they do it to start with on the first day?

And sure there was nothing wrong with his heart after looking at the taperecording... That cost him another 6000thb

The policy is to not tell you what things will actually cost you...

I've had only good experiences with BNH before this as my wife has been going there for some time as we're having a baby. However after this we decided to change hospitals even it's only 4 weeks before delivery.. I can't support a hospital that "cheats" customers and were the policy is to take as much money from people.

In Sweden they want to get you out of the hospital as soon as possible because the patients cost money. With privatized hospitals they want to keep you as long as possible.

I've heard that there is a government agency that monitors the hospitals in Thailand. Anyone have an idea about this?

Thanks

Rob

In BNH about 75.000thb

Sure, but if your doctor tells you that you can get problem with your heart (and as I'm no doctor) I don't want to take any chances.. Would you?

Of course it's a way of making money (see my other recent post about BNH), but why am I not covered? Can the insurance company just do whatever they feel like...

I can probably call my creditcard company and get my money back for the goodhealt signup but..

Fee for surgery minus sign-up fee for insurance..

Well the difference is about 50.000thb...

Goodhealth is registered in HongKong and not sure what I can do here..

Story about routine visit to BNH

My nephew went to see a doctor at BNH for what he thought was an infection in his scrotum.

He saw a doctor, who prescribed him some medicine and this didn't take more than 10 minutes.

When he was sitting in the lobby waiting to get his medicine and to pay, he got a an anxiety attack (as he is scared of beeing in hopitals) and so he almost passed out. He managed to grab a nurse who took him in to the ICU where they hooked him up to all these machines to monitor him.

When I arrived about 40 minutes later in the hospital the Doctor said his heartrate had went up to 150 and so they had to inject him with a long list of medicines in order to get his heartrate down to a normal level (which in my oppinion 2 valiums would have done).

They said they wanted to keep him overnight for observation and the cashier came to explain the costs.

The bill so far was already 10.000 and they explained that the room, nursing and food etc would cost 8500thb. I thought, ok it will end up at 20.000thb until tomorrow.

Next day when I come back to pick my nephew up from the hospital, the invoice is 40.000thb instead of the calculated 20.000thb. I'm not sure why I agreed to pay but I did..

Later when I asked for the detailed invoice I could see that 2 more doctors had visited him for the original problem he had the day before, even though he had alread seen a doctor for that and they had insisted that he would do an ultrasound to be sure (not mentioning the costs for this and something they would not have been able to do if he had went home as planned the day before).

Later before he is released the doctor tells him that they want him to wear a "taperecoreder" that will record his heartrate as they "had seen" during the night that his heart was not beating normaly.

Never did they tell him that he would have to pay over 5000thb for the taperecorder nor did they tell him that the "extra" ultrasound would cost him more than 6000thb. Along with oxygen, IV fluids, special physicians evaluation etc etc and this and that, the invoice ended up 20.000thb more than what they told me on the first day.

1. They insisted on performing more treatments to the original problem even though he'd seen a doctor for this problem already. And if he had went home the same day they would never had done an ultrasound...

2. Why aren't they informing the patient about the cost? Of course it's a private hospital and they need to make money, but how far can this go?

1 tourist = 20.000thb, 100 tourists = 2.000.000thb in extra money

I have sent a letter to the GM of BNH but still after more than 2 weeks I have not heard anything back.

How common is this and is there anything I can do about this?

Thanks

Rob

Be careful about Goodhealth and BNH. They might in bed together..

I visited BNH as I had a soar throat (really bad) and the Doctor recommended that I should remove the tonsills because if the infection would come back it could spread to the heart (Reumatic fever) and the kidneys.

Of course you listen to the doctor and as I was insured by GoodHealth I didn't think anything more about it. I even contacted Goodhealth in advance who emailed me some documents for the doctor to sign and send back to them.

After surgery I sent all documents to GoodHealth who now refuses to pay for the surgery stating that I knew I had this problem before signing up for the insurance. The Doctor apparently told them that my "problem" started earlier (before I signed up). But I have never visited BNH before my first visit when the doctor recommende removal of the tonsills.

Accoding to Goodhealt I am not covered. A Pre-existing Condition is "Any Medical Condition or Related Condition for which You have received Treatment, had symptoms of, to the best of Your knowledge existed or You sought Advise for prior to Your Date of Entry..."

Sure I have a had a soar throat before, who hasn't?? Especially if you live in Bangkok.

This means that if you ever had a soar throat before and you need to remove your tonsils (on recomendation from the doctor) you will not be covered.

I wonder what they say about having a headache and then later next year I find out I have a braintumour.. Will the headache be regarded as a Pre-existing or Related Condition??

Since I pointed this out, Goodhealt has stopped replying to me.

Can anyone tell me what to do?

Thanks

removed by author

hi,

i´ll be moving to bkk (from germany) next month with my family and am now comparing various health insurance companies for health insurances.

i saw here an ad of "goodhealth" (uk) - can someone tell me anything positive / negative about this company and/or make other recommendations?

thanks a lot in advance!

khun_j

I just did a tonsilectomy (removed tonsils) in BNH, but after sending all the papers to Goodhealth they refuse to pay me back. They say that the Doctor at BNH has told them that I have had this problem before and so they will not cover for the surgery. The thing is that I have never been to BNH before about this problem... So now I don't know what to do. Goodhealth has since stopped replying to my emails...

I would not recommend.

Use a bank in Luxembourg... They won't let any info out..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Luxembourg & Switzerland are now under pressure.

More and more they succumb to European tax authorities.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess we'll see..

I just had a talk with "my bank" the other day and they assured me that nothing would happen in the near future. But if something would happen I'm pretty sure they have a solution for it already (maybe branch in another part of the world where they will just move the money to...)

I'm not worried.

Use a bank in Luxembourg... They won't let any info out..