Payment On Demand At Hospitals

[mrtoad]

Anyone ever heard of insurance? It does exist, even in Thailand.

Heard of the Hippocratic oath?

I don't think the OP was getting at the insurance part of things, I was having a discussion with a felow colleague in the health care industry a few weeks back, and we were both commenting on the distasteful attitudes of certain hospitals asking for payment on entry in a certain manner. This person had been admitted to Bumrungrad, and was aggresively asked for documents etc, etc. He left and went to Samitivej, as he was so unhappy with the way that they were trying to admit him and yes he did have insurance. There are ways of doing it, and I think that certain hospitals need to learn about CS at point of entry. I'm guessing that is what the OP is actually getting at.

[Jingthing]

Insurance isn't a panacea. If you come over here with PREEXISTING CONDITIONS you cannot buy private insurance here that will cover them, a situation Americans will be very familiar with (sadly). Also, some older expats cannot buy any insurance at all, based on their age.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Jingthing

[Heng]

Probably a good idea for those who are uninsured and who have relatively modest savings to keep cards in their wallets with instructions to send them to the nearest government hosptial in the event of an emergency... with a list of preferred hospitals included.

It's a good idea anyway to have contact info. and at the very least blood group on you in the event of an emergency, even if you carry a valid insurance card... doesn't hurt to add extra info.

[katana]

I've found that if you have holiday insurance and show them the details, they still make you pay in cash or by credit card upfront and tell you to make your own arrangements to claim the charges back from your insurers at a later date.

[Maizefarmer]

Maybe this is an academic question, maybe it isn't.

When visiting hospitals, you often don't know the total charge until they escort you out to the cashier to pay the bill. I bring lots of cash and have never had a problem, but what happens if the bill is more than you are able to pay on the spot? There is often an ATM there, but in my case there is a 20K baht daily limit, and a bill could easily go over that. Again, what exactly would they do? I know they won't just send a bill like in the west. So what then?

Of course in cases of emergencies you wouldn't even be prepared with lots of cash in your pocket.

-- hold you prisoner in the hospital?

-- call the police?

-- escort you under guard to your bank (what if the bank is closed)?

Any true life experiences, let's hear them!

Having bailed out someone post the fact (meaning; having to pay the bill after they had departed and failed to pay up as agreed) - this is the situation as I understood it and as it played out on that occassion.

No - you cannot be held by the police: it is a civil debt matter not a criminal matter - so long as you are not refusing to pay. Lets get that straight. Oh, sure - they will big time pressure you and indeed some of the Bkk hospitals do have "relationships" with friendly cops, who wil turn up and turn the screws, but its a pressure tactic, and so long as you stay on the right side of the law, not having funds on you come bill payment time does not consititute a criminal offence, or an offense for which you can be arrested and locked up.

Indeed, you can and most likely will be escorted to one or other bank if you need to to collect funds - and if it so happens that your check out date is a Sunday or a public holiday on which banks are closed, its quite possible you will be offered a chance to stay an extra night at the hospital, free of charge - which is exactly the situation I had to deal with regards a friend of mine.

He racked up a bill of Baht36 000. Come "check out", it fell on a Tuesday which just happened to be a public holiday that year. What done was try and fob the hospital off with a cheuqe/check - which the originaly (having no doubt been stung before) declined to accept. Not been able to say he was due to catch a plane that night out of Thailand (which would have been the same as saying I ain;t going to pay), he was escorted the 40 odd kilometers to me by 2 cops, to borrow money. Not having that amount of cash on me at the time I agreed to stand sureity and handed over some or other document (I can;t remember what it was - blue book, WP, car docs or something similar). I too didn't know he was on a plane that night!

Come 24 hrs later the phone rang and ... well, the rest is history. But back to the point: the cops themselves confided to me that there was at the end of the day little they could have done to force him to pay there and then, and in any case, as they also told me, ultimatley, having explored all options the best/worst case scenario is to get the patient/debtor to enter into a signed agreement to pay (later) - holding someone forciably (against their will) is not an option for a civil debt - in the absense of any court order or whatever it is courts issue in such cases.

Bkk hospitals are used to getting stung and I know the first thing they do (when no insurance is presented) is ask for a deposit and/or take references from whoever they can.

Its usualy a case of not having sufficient to cover a whole bill as opposed to downright having nothing (which they go out of their way in the first place to avoid by seeking a deposit or local garruntor).

Personally I know of no-one, or of any case in which someone has been arrested or held forceably because they cant pay a bill - let me rephrase that: I do know of folk who have been "held" for not paying a hotel bill, but the argument there that the police had on their side was that it looked like the guest had no intention from the start to pay the bill - kind of hard to argue if you had fallen off the back of a Tuk Tuk (i.e. not as if that was planned).

That's my experiance and take on the subject.

Sxxt happens, as they say.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Maizefarmer