Not Only Farangs

[farangfool]

I just read the below on a different platform. It seems that the emergency services are bribed on a large scale by private hospitals nation wide. Good to know that our on local mafia-like modern firstclass rip-off emergency center is not the only one. We all need health insurance and at the same time legal insurance and possibly a call-in body guard to escape from captivity. Evidentlythese private places are into hostage taking as well.

It would be nice to know if the Philok place belongs to the same chain that operates our local ripoff joint.

Phitsanulok Girl goes bankrupt from hospital treatment

Girl goes bankrupt from hospital treatment

Land seized to pay Bt300,000 bill,even though she has NHSO card

A patient from Phitsanulok has lost her land in a tricky deal with a private hospital and become bankrupt because she could not pay a Bt315,600 medical bill.

Yardpirun Peungmoung, 17, said yesterday the hospital staff persuaded her family to enter into a land sales contract with the hospital because she did not have enough money to pay for treatment.

Even though her land was mortgaged with the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, the hospital offered to loan her money to redeem her land from the bank plus cover the land transfer fee of Bt61,000.

Her father Ya, 50, said he was persuaded to sign other contracts with the hospital for Bt154,567 but he did not ask for any loan from the hospital.

Yardpirun's family was sued by the hospital at Phitsanulok Court on August 16 to force her to move out of her house and dismantle it.

She was injured in an accident on April 14, 2006, while driving her motorcycle to buy milk for her grandmother. A rescue team sent her to a private hospital but she should have been taken to the nearby Buddhachinaj Hospital because she holds a gold card from the National Health Security Office and can claim her medical service under the universal healthcare scheme from the public hospital.

"I don't know why the rescue team sent my daughter to a private hospital because we're poor. They only told us that it was an emergency and surgery was urgently needed, but the public hospital where my daughter has rights is close, only three kilometres away," Ya said.

During her 32-day stay, she tried to tell the private hospital that she wanted to be transferred to Buddhachinaj after learning that she was entitled to her rights there.

"I was refused by the private hospital to have my case referred to Buddhachinaj Hospital. The staff told me that I had to clear all my debts with the hospital and then I could go," she said.

The private hospital told The Nation that it would not divulge any information to the public because the case was still in litigation and the hospital would give more details about the facts after the case was closed.

However, scheme members who have a serious accident could receive emergency attention at any hospital including a private one and move to their designated hospital after surgery. But patients have to ask the first hospital to refer their case to the designated hospital.

The first hospital would be paid Bt14,000 for the patient's treatment expenses from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) and Bt15,000 under the Accident Victims Protection Act.

Sivasak Naewchan, a Consumers Foundation lawyer providing counsel on this case, said the private hospital had already been reimbursed for treatment expenses by the government. But it still dragged out Yardpirun's stay in the hospital. The reason for that was not made clear to her.

Dr Chuchai Sornchumi, director of the NHSO's bureau of disease management, said the agency would assign its Phitsanulok office to look into this case by examining the patient's medical record from the private hospital. This case would also be discussed by its executives to find a solution.

He said the Medical Registration Department and Medical Council of Thailand should take responsibility for investigating this case.

More than 1,145 cases have been reported to the office. Most victims face the same problem as in Yardpirun's case but they were not sued for outstanding debts.

Prasit Kumgurd, from the General Insurance Association, said most insurance companies had sued private hospitals for overcharging their patients and more than 70 per cent of insurance claims were paid out to private hospitals for medical service.

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

[george]

Topic closed.

/Admin