Deadline for hospitals to display medicine prices pushed back

[webfact]

Deadline for hospitals to display medicine prices pushed back

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

 

Wichai Pochanakit, Director-General of the Department of Internal Trade, explains the new regulation on May 29. Photo: DIT

 

PHUKET: The deadline for all hospitals to publicly display prices of medicines that passed last Saturday (July 20) has been deferred to Aug 15 at the earliest, The Phuket News has confirmed.

 

Under the new law, brought into effect on May 29, all hospitals must publicly disclose the drugs provided, the manufacturer, the drugs’ brand names, how much the hospital purchased the drugs for and how much they are selling them for, confirmed Sasiphimon Mongkon, Chief of the Phuket Provincial office of the Ministry of Commerce, which has been tasked with implementing the new regulation in Phuket.

 

The new law is being implemented through the Department of Internal Trade, under the Ministry of Commerce following the order by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha last month.

Read more at https://www.thephuketnews.com/deadline-for-hospitals-to-display-medicine-prices-pushed-back-72294.php#siZyKifgSDPXzx2K.99

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-07-29

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[gunderhill]

Yeah theyre  going to push it back and lock it up in the medicine cabinet..FOREVER!

[pokerface1]

2 hours ago, gunderhill said:

Yeah theyre  going to push it back and lock it up in the medicine cabinet..FOREVER!

Heaven forbid we cannot allow complete transparency to creap into the world of Thai business. 

[legend49]

They need time to mark up the prices by 60% then they give you a 20% discount so you think you have a bargain.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Deadline for hospitals to display medicine prices pushed back

And so it goes on !!!

[bluesofa]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The deadline for all hospitals to publicly display prices of medicines that passed last Saturday (July 20) has been deferred to Aug 15 at the earliest

or more likely to be the 12th of Never.

[Bob12345]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

how much the hospital purchased the drugs for

Strange requirement as this is (competion) sensitive information. Why would the consumer care what the cost price is? Say a pill is sold for 100 baht, but the cost price is 1 baht? Now what? Dont take the pill? 

 

Better let them display the verified selling prices of the same products at the 5 nearest or biggest competitors. This hospital sells the pill for 100 baht but around the corner they are 75 baht. Thats useful information, the purchasing price not.

 

Btw, just get the manufacturer to charge you 99 baht for that pill and give back 98 baht in the form of discounts on something else (or just cash).

[digger70]

7 hours ago, gunderhill said:

Yeah theyre  going to push it back and lock it up in the medicine cabinet..FOREVER!

They need more time to fudge the numbers so that they look good on paper   ????

[cocopops]

3 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

Strange requirement as this is (competion) sensitive information. Why would the consumer care what the cost price is? Say a pill is sold for 100 baht, but the cost price is 1 baht? Now what? Dont take the pill?  

 

Better let them display the verified selling prices of the same products at the 5 nearest or biggest competitors. This hospital sells the pill for 100 baht but around the corner they are 75 baht. Thats useful information, the purchasing price not.

 

Btw, just get the manufacturer to charge you 99 baht for that pill and give back 98 baht in the form of discounts on something else (or just cash). 

 

Exactly - or just have the owners of the hospital set up a second company to sit between the hospital and the drug wholesalers.

 

Having them publish their own prices is a great step - someone else will aggregate them online. Asking a private business to take responsibility for correctly reporting their competitors up-to-date prices though? I don't think that's going to work.

 

[Bob12345]

^agreed.

 

One of the health insurance companies will (probably) soon create an app where you can type in the name of the medication and it will show you the prices plus travel distance to the same medicine at other locations (hospitals, pharmacies, online store) based on your GPS location. Then a patient can decide if they want to buy it at the hospital pharmacy or travel x distance to save x baht.

 

Great for them to create the app to display ads for their health insurance. 

[griffon2011]

On 7/29/2019 at 8:56 AM, legend49 said:

They need time to mark up the prices by 60% then they give you a 20% discount so you think you have a bargain.

I paid 49,428 baht for Meronem 1 gm at a bkk private hospital.  You can find the same for around 1500 baht online.  Hows that for a markup? 

[LivinginKata]

2 hours ago, griffon2011 said:

I paid 49,428 baht for Meronem 1 gm at a bkk private hospital.  You can find the same for around 1500 baht online.  Hows that for a markup? 

 

We locals all know never buy meds at hospital.  Get name written down and buy at SuperCheap .

[griffon2011]

1 hour ago, LivinginKata said:

 

We locals all know never buy meds at hospital.  Get name written down and buy at SuperCheap .

My Thai GF was seriously ill at the time so it wasn't a question of buying at Supercheap because it was administered intravenously and only one of a number of drugs and procedures I tried to keep track of over 4 days that were prescribed by 6 doctors.  After the bill hit 500K baht I had to move her to the government hospital near her home. There is no way to justify a markup of that magnitude.