When staying well gets expensive price-gouging probe extends to vet clinics as well as private hospitals

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Reportedly excessive prices being charged at veterinarian clinics and animal hospitals are to be reined in, says the director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Department of International Trade (DIT).
 

Wichai Phochanaki said on Friday the DIT would screen the many such facilities and try to ensure consumers were not being overcharged for services and medicine. 

 

He also provided an update on the ministry’s progress in tackling the same problem at private hospitals for people.

 

DIT officials were arranging meetings with the administrators of about 70 private hospitals to discuss public complaints about prices charged for medicine, medical supplies and treatment, he said.

 

Some charge 300 per cent more than the median price, some even as much as 8,000 per cent more, Wichai said. 

 

Some charge Bt800,000 per dose of cancer medication, well above the median Bt200,000, and Bt200 for every tablet of the painkiller paracetamol, which can readily be bought elsewhere for Bt5.

 

The 70 or so hospitals under scrutiny represent 30 per cent of the 353 hospitals that have submitted information about their prices, as requested by a ministry committee on May 30, Wichai said.

 

Another 30 per cent claimed to charge prices below the median, while another 40 per cent set “moderate” prices that could be considered “fair to patients to a certain degree”, he said.

 

Private hospitals have until July 12 to report their charges and fees, after which the DIT will post all of the prices online so that people can base their choice of hospitals on what they can afford.

 

Wichai said hospitals are required to notify the DIT 15 days in advance of any price change so that online and QR-code information can be updated. 

 

Failure to do so could land administrators in jail for up to a year, bring a fine of up to Bt20,000, or both, as well as a daily fine of Bt2,000 until they comply.

Wichai said private hospitals need to give people room to choose once they know their diagnosis by notifying them about prices charged for various treatments.

 

Doctors must give patients a document with each drug prescription that clearly identifies the medications by both scientific name and commercial name, the advised dosage and frequency of ingestion, and the price per unit.

 

The patient could then choose to buy the medication from the hospital or elsewhere, using the prescription paper. Physicians who fail to meet this requirement face up five years in prison, a Bt100,000 fine, or both.

 

The Commerce Ministry and its partners have established a committee to assess complaints about “over-treatment” of patients, such as administering unnecessary and costly X-rays and MRI scans, resulting in pricey bills.

 

The committee will ascertain the facts and alert the ministry’s central committee if further action was deemed necessary. 

 

The penalty for unnecessary treatment is a maximum seven years in prison, a Bt140,000 fine, or both.

 

Wichai said these efforts were not aimed at state-run “public” hospitals, which must adhere to separate laws and regulations and are under the supervision of the Finance Ministry’s Comptroller General’s Department.

 

“We just want to see private hospitals and patients being kind to each other, because they’re dependent upon one another,” he said. 

 

“Sometimes patients have limited options when it comes to matters of life and death. I want the private hospitals to adjust their way of thinking and operating to be fairer and more transparent.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30370773

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-06-10

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

If  the vets is   cheaper  maybe Id  better go there next time I'm  ill? I'll just change my name to "Rover"

52 minutes ago, webfact said:

Some charge Bt800,000 per dose of cancer medication,

Are  people really that  daft to spend  that sort of money on  a "pet", Incredible.

47 minutes ago, Chazar said:

Are  people really that  daft to spend  that sort of money on  a "pet", Incredible.

Because they have empathy and sensitivity which you lack?

 

Humans are talking apes.

Why do you feel other animals don't have a right to life and to have injuries or diseases cured?

 

And they are not "pets", they are companions and friends.

 

 

A step in the right direction, got to be  good. 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Some charge Bt800,000 per dose of cancer medication

What about cannabis oil, must be cheaper.

3 minutes ago, Vacuum said:

What about cannabis oil, must be cheaper.

 

Don't worry...there is a new pet insurance for farangs...400,000 in care, 40,000 out care...cut and paste details to come soon..

3 hours ago, Chazar said:

Are  people really that  daft to spend  that sort of money on  a "pet", Incredible.

Reading through this seems to be talking about a hospital for people noy an animal vet.

3 hours ago, Chazar said:

Are  people really that  daft to spend  that sort of money on  a "pet", Incredible.

This is where the expression "Love you too mutt" comes from. 

5 minutes ago, futsukayoi said:

Reading through this seems to be talking about a hospital for people noy an animal vet.

Yes, it's a strange OP.

 

It seems to jump from the picture of animals and mentioning "animal hospitals" to then writing about "human" hospitals.

why when I read something like this do I always feel ''to good to be true''

maybe been here to long?

Every time we bring our dogs to the vet, even if it's for the same treatment we have gotten before. The price seems to go up.  We change Vets and low and behold the same thing happens again. 

2 hours ago, wisperone said:

Don't worry...there is a new pet insurance for farangs...400,000 in care, 40,000 out care...cut and paste details to come soon..

Public hospitals only.

I am really surprised by this story.  We live in Koh Samui not Bangkok but have found the vets we deal with extremely professional and always very reasonably priced.  Our dog was a very sick stray when we took him in and he has needed many vet visits.  We also take some of our neighbours dogs to the vet as they have to work daytime.  For minor things they sometimes don't even charge and only for a few major things has the bill been over 1000 baht. 

 

For the last couple of years our dog was getting very sick.  The vets here ran lots of tests and suggested we should take him to a vet hospital in Suratthani with extremely good lab facilities to confirm their suspected diagnosis of Cushing's disease. The vets coordinated everything and when we got to Suratthani a vet and 2 assistants were ready and spent all day doing a wide array of tests (x-rays, ultrasound, swabs of skin and saliva, hair sample urine tests, blood tests).  They then put him on a drip with a dose of hormones for about an hour and conducted a series of follow up tests every 4 hours.  The team volunteered to work overtime until 9:00pm to complete everything so we did not need to stay an extra day.  They even contacted a couple of cafes down the road to confirm that we could take our dog in while they were running some of the longer tests on samples.They confirmed the diagnosis and and established that our dog was going to need some pretty expensive medication every day.  They said it was expensive in Thailand and helped us to arrange to get it ourselves more cheaply through a supplier in the UK.  The whole cost was just over 10,000 baht and there was no further charge from them or our local vet for follow up tests and consultations to confirm the medicine dosage was correct and starting to work. 

 

I thought it was incredible value for money and a level of service well beyond my expectations.  If only Bangkok hospital could come anywhere close.

20 hours ago, Chazar said:

If  the vets is   cheaper  maybe Id  better go there next time I'm  ill? I'll just change my name to "Rover"

You won't like it when they shove the thermometer up your arse.