Warning: Bumrungrad'S "Healthy Living Club"

[pjbradley]

If anyone plans to join BH's "Healthy Living Club" these days, beware: you'll be *required* (i.e., treated like an employee or victim of a government officer, as opposed to a customer or patient) to show a work permit or retirement visa.

Is this requirement listed on the "application?" Of course not. (Application? To take my money? Another example of this hospital's arrogant, bureaucratic management. How about "registration form?" Oh, wait: that wouldn't be high-handed enough for BH management.)

Yes, there's a residency requirement, and in my case, I've been registered as a resident patient there for over 10 years, but we're talking about bureaucrats, not customer service or reasonableness, so forget it. They don't care about the time you wasted because of their thoughtlessness in not spelling out this requirement to take your money on the precious "application form" (not to mention treating me like a possible liar who must show "proof").

It's like dealing with government bureaucrats: it's all about them and what they want, not you.

So you waste your time reading about the program, making a decision, filling out the form, and then being told, "Sorry. Try again later."

To be fair, the clerk was very nice and apologetic, explaining that only recently has this document nonsense become strictly enforced.

By some government agency? I asked.

"Oh, no," she said, "the marketing department.."

Coming from a SET-listed company whose legal (fiduciary), primary obligation is to its shareholders, that answer, with zero irony, is pure Bumrungrad: marketing and money. Everything else is secondary at BH (that's their stock symbol).

Some very fine medical staff work there; it's too bad they and their patients are ill-served by a greedy management clueless as to genuine customer service (defined by providing help when things go wrong, not just extracting maximum revenue from people and quoting policies to explain why things won't get done, which any moron can do). Anyone who quotes "policy" to a customer is essentially saying, "We do things the way we want to, and we don't care about your needs."

Anyone who has followed this forum (especially the "Bummer at Bumrungrad" topic) knows how horrible the management can be when things go wrong and a patient dares to complain.

So those marketing dummies just marketed themselves out of Bt6,300, because I won't pay anyone who requires written proof that I'm not a liar.

[junkofdavid2]

This is probably the marketing dept's attempt to get "demographic info" for more "targeted" marketing.

Yes, it is kinda annoying and if it annoys me enough, I'll just leave.

What's most laughable though is the seemingly "extreme emotional stress" that this tiny nuisance brought you, and your equally great efforts to rant about it.

[TerryLH]

"So you waste your time reading about the program, making a decision, filling out the form, and then being told, "Sorry. Try again later."

Maybe that's why they call it an application instead of a registration.

They apparently have some 'qualifications' and don't take everyone, which tends to go against your 'greed' theory. If it was truly just greed, they'd be happy to take everyones money.

What is it that you get out of this program?

[pjbradley]

This is probably the marketing dept's attempt to get "demographic info" for more "targeted" marketing.

Yes, it is kinda annoying and if it annoys me enough, I'll just leave.

What's most laughable though is the seemingly "extreme emotional stress" that this tiny nuisance brought you, and your equally great efforts to rant about it.

I agree, as you say, that the marketing people probably want some demographic data in return for offering discounts: a fair exchange. Inexcusable is demanding documentation while not saying so on the form.

As a co-owner of a hybrid B2B/B2C business, I'm passionate about customer service. Excellence in any endeavor requires passion, and in a hospital, customer service is doubly important compared with more typical consumer venues: stress levels tend to be higher; nobody goes to a hospital for fun. For this reason, thoughtlessness, carelessness, and mistakes often evoke stronger reactions than outside the institution, so extra care and service must be taken.

In addition to passion, excellent customer service requires empathy, i.e., putting one's self into the consumer's situation. Given your narcissistic putdown, specifically, your unstated assumption that if someone doesn't share your response to a situation then that person's reaction must, of course!, be "laughable," this point may not come easily to you, if at all.

And given your narcissistic display, you may well feel the need to have the last word. It's all yours.

[pjbradley]

"So you waste your time reading about the program, making a decision, filling out the form, and then being told, "Sorry. Try again later."

Maybe that's why they call it an application instead of a registration.

They apparently have some 'qualifications' and don't take everyone, which tends to go against your 'greed' theory. If it was truly just greed, they'd be happy to take everyones money.

What is it that you get out of this program?

You're right about "application"; what a shame the boobs can't be bothered to state their requirements, or any requirements, for handing them one's hard-earned money until one fills out the questionnaire and tries to submit it.

To your question, it's merely a discount card, the kind you might get from a Starbucks, though with the hefty upfront fee. They ask the same demographic questions that other companies ask, but add the (unstated) requirement to prove you're not lying about momentous questions about whether you're retired or whatever.

"Greed" is a label, and I agree that labels can mean different things to different people. Upon reflection, I suppose my beef is this: if patients are going to pay four-star prices, they should get more than McDonald's service: a glossy veneer over inflexible, indifferent, government-like treatment.

If one reads the troubling stories in this forum (mine is merely annoying), one can see how management, indifferent to everything but making a baht, can harm patients when something goes wrong, as often happens in medical situations. In this context, I call that "greed."

[bumrungrad]

Hello PJBradley,

First, let me give you an apology for our customer service in this issue. Either standard processes were not followed or our customer service staff did not take initiative to ensure the processes were followed.

Our Healthy Living Club card is our way to offer benefits to local residents, both Thai and expat, that may visit the hospital frequently. To clarify what the card does, the goal of the program is to offer an Executive Check-up and 3 years of discounts at the same price as the Executive Check-up. So technically, if there is a need for a check-up, you can get this and 3 years of discounts at the same price.

Because of this, it is designed to be available to Thailand residents only. However, we have had international patients find ways of obtaining the card. Because of this, we do check to validate if a patient is living in Thailand. This is where the problem was.

The process is to ask for proof of residence. If proof cannot be shown, our staff is to check the records of the patient to validate address and previous visits. Unfortunately, in this case it appears there was either no attempt to validate from our system's records, or there was no initiative to check with another station with proper computer access if our staff could not validate the patient themselves at their station. Either way, the effect was the same.

We do believe that our standard of service is much higher than this, and we do believe that you do have the right to complain. We have clarified the process with our staff and will be able to handle these situations better in the future. Please be assured that all future applications will be handled in the appropriate manner.

We appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to write anything else to directly me (or post on this forum, of course!).

Best regards,

Scott @ Bumrungrad

[Sheryl]

Thanks for the clarification and follow up, Scott.

One question: I am unclear as to why the fact that the package entitles to a check-up & 3 years of discounts makes it limited to Thailand residents only. Can you explain?

There are many international patients who live elsewhere in the region and use Bumrungrad regularly for their health needs. Why would they be any different than those living in Thailand?

For that matter, there are expats living in the US, Europe and Australia/NZ who come to Thailand every year or more often, get their check-ups and other elective medical procedures here on a regular basis, and likewise are long-term, patients of Bumrungrad.

If the concern is that foreigners would be unable to benefit from the card because they might not be back within the next 3 years, wouldn't it make more sense in the case of non-Thais to just explain to them that the card's benefits have a3 year limitation and that it is thus worth obtaining only if one lives in Thailand or expects to return several times within that time period -- and then let them decide for themselves if that applies??

Doesn't seem like the hospital loses anything if someone enrolls and is then unable to fully utilize the discounts...

[bumrungrad]

Hi Sheryl,

When I used to live in Colorado, the ski resorts came out with specially priced season passes which needed to be purchased by May for the next snow season - this means they need to be purchased 6 - 8 months in advance. You could not just send in a credit card to purchase the passes, you had to show up to get your picture taken. This effectively limited the passes to Colorado residents. Perhaps some from Kansas if they were motivated enough. Why were these passes given these limitations and not offered all year round? Similarly, there are people that make multiple trips to CO for snow sports - why was this not offered to them?

Although the situations and answers are not completely the same, the answers to your questions lie in this space.

Moving from your question would be the next logical question - why don't we just lower our prices on all of the applicable products/services permanently to the discount level offered by this card? The answer is that we simply cannot offer that pricing for everyone at that level.

I mis-"spoke" when I said "Because of this, it is designed to be available to Thailand residents only." You are correct it is not because of the program that it is available to Thailand residents only. It is because we cannot support this discount level for every patient.

As everyone does, we have to make difficult decisions, some of which won't make everyone happy. We highly value and appreciate our international patients, and have invested in many, many things to make them happy in many other ways. This is simply a tough decision we have had to make to make Thailand residents happy - and it does not "take away happiness" from anyone else by not offering it to everyone.

Apologies, overuse of the word "happy" seems corny, but I hope you can understand.

Best regards,

Scott @ Bumrungrad

[Sheryl]

Thank you for the clarification, Scott.

1 post which was flaming in nature has been removed.

[pjbradley]

Hello PJBradley,

First, let me give you an apology for our customer service in this issue. Either standard processes were not followed or our customer service staff did not take initiative to ensure the processes were followed.

Our Healthy Living Club card is our way to offer benefits to local residents, both Thai and expat, that may visit the hospital frequently. To clarify what the card does, the goal of the program is to offer an Executive Check-up and 3 years of discounts at the same price as the Executive Check-up. So technically, if there is a need for a check-up, you can get this and 3 years of discounts at the same price.

Because of this, it is designed to be available to Thailand residents only. However, we have had international patients find ways of obtaining the card. Because of this, we do check to validate if a patient is living in Thailand. This is where the problem was.

The process is to ask for proof of residence. If proof cannot be shown, our staff is to check the records of the patient to validate address and previous visits. Unfortunately, in this case it appears there was either no attempt to validate from our system's records, or there was no initiative to check with another station with proper computer access if our staff could not validate the patient themselves at their station. Either way, the effect was the same.

We do believe that our standard of service is much higher than this, and we do believe that you do have the right to complain. We have clarified the process with our staff and will be able to handle these situations better in the future. Please be assured that all future applications will be handled in the appropriate manner.

We appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to write anything else to directly me (or post on this forum, of course!).

Best regards,

Scott @ Bumrungrad

Thank you, Scott, for that clarification. We're all human; mistakes happen; and I greatly appreciate your explanation and responsiveness. While no one enjoys having to go to a hospital, of course, I will continue my relationship with Bumrungrad. Thanks again for taking the time to follow-up on this forum, Paul.

Edited April 21, 2011 by pjbradley