MOPH issues solutions to costly private medical services

BANGKOK, 5 June 2015 (NNT) – The Ministry of Public Health has mapped out solutions to the costly medical services of private hospitals following the public outcry.

During a meeting of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), Public Health Minister Ratchata Ratchatanawin disclosed that the Ministry of Public Health and related agencies had set up a special committee to follow up on complaints about overcharging medical bills imposed by private hospitals.

Dr. Ratchata said the Ministry of Public Health has already ordered private hospitals to proportion their profits and drug pricing to the actual costs, adding that private hospitals must also keep the public updated on drug prices based on the market mechanism.

The Ministry has also planned to issue rules to enable patients to use doctors’ prescriptions to buy medicine at drug stores if they consider medications sold by private hospitals too expensive. All private hospitals were in addition ordered to make their own websites to post their treatment fee rate so that consumers can choose hospitals that suit their budgets.

Dr. Ratchata also revealed initial findings attributing the jump in medical service fees to several factors, including investment in property, purchase of newly-develop drugs and equipment as well as adoption of advanced treatment technologies.

-- NNT 2015-06-05

Dr. Ratchata also revealed initial findings attributing the jump in medical service fees to several factors, including. He forgot greed

The latest trick at a large hospital on Convent road is to add a Baht 250 "administration"fee to every doctor visit fee

Even some doctors are writing prescriptions instead of pushing patients to buy the hospitals drugs.

Because they know they might not comeback to follow-up consultations because they no longer think they can afford to. Even for a foreign devil like myself, I was encouraged quietly to go to the pharmacy down the street.

The profiteering on drugs is very clear even from the publicly available information on listed hospitals.

Force them to let the patient choose where to fill the script as happens in the UK.

See... give the MOPH a few weeks, and they've already "solved" the medical/drugs pricing problem in Thailand.

OK people, move along now, nothing more to see or complain about here. Not that anything has actually changed in reality....

But the government has now spoken, so everything must be OK, right???

A clever and cunning solution: set up a committee delegated to fix the problem. That will work.

If the government goes really aggressively controlling prices and profit margins at private hospitals, maybe in a few years medical care at those hospitals will really suck.

I would think transparency about fees for common procedures, and the opt-out for prescriptions, would be OK, while controls on profit as a proportion of cost, would NOT be OK. Especially with some medical procedures, the profit may be higher as a proportion due to long term investments and risks. Water or electricity can be priced on a "cost plus" basis; open heart surgery, not so much.

I would like to see regulations requiring private hospitals to notify people at registration of costs involved.

Example, if someone coming to see a shoulder specialist, he should be informed the fee for doctor is 1000, plus nursing charge of 500 baht.

If doctor makes any injections, there is an additional fee of 1200 baht plus the cost of medication to be confirmed by the doctor.

If the government goes really aggressively controlling prices and profit margins at private hospitals, maybe in a few years medical care at those hospitals will really suck.

I would think transparency about fees for common procedures, and the opt-out for prescriptions, would be OK, while controls on profit as a proportion of cost, would NOT be OK. Especially with some medical procedures, the profit may be higher as a proportion due to long term investments and risks. Water or electricity can be priced on a "cost plus" basis; open heart surgery, not so much.

BKK Hospital charges 12 000 baht for private room, one would think 12 000 per night would include everything, but it does not.

Then they add nursing fees, and meals.

There are cheaper rooms in 5 star hotels with plush furniture and great views and cheaper prices.

Even some doctors are writing prescriptions instead of pushing patients to buy the hospitals drugs.

Because they know they might not comeback to follow-up consultations because they no longer think they can afford to. Even for a foreign devil like myself, I was encouraged quietly to go to the pharmacy down the street.

I had a doctor like that once, he wrote everything down on paper and told me to get it from Fascino!