Private Thai hospitals told to show medical fees on websites

[webfact]

Private hospitals told to show medical fees on websites

BANGKOK, 10 June 2015 (NNT) – In the latest bid to solve complaints about private hospitals’ unusually high medical fees, the Ministry of Public Health’s special committee has come up with new regulations to enable patients to pick hospitals and services they can afford.

According to Public Health Minister Ratchata Ratchatanawin, his ministry will instruct all private hospitals to allow the general public to enquire about treatment fees and drug prices without having to be their customers first.

All hospitals must sell medicines for no more than prices specified in their price tags. They must allow their patients to use prescriptions to buy drugs at general drugstores, if the patients find medicine offered by hospitals too expensive.

The Ministry of Public Health and the Pharmacy Council will jointly regulate the standards of all pharmacies nationwide while the Ministry of Commerce’s products and services committee will be requested to issue regulations to make sure that drug outlets adhere to fair pricing and services.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health Service Support has been assigned to build a website containing fees of 77 types of operations that require pre-admission appointments of private hospitals across the country.

The Ministry in addition opens two hot lines: 02 193 7999 and 1330 for consumers wanting to complain about overpriced medical services. They can also call the Consumers Protection hot line 1166.


-- NNT 2015-06-10

[clockman]

Lets hope this is the end of the hospital gravy train!

[petedk]

Will they have Thai and English language pages?

Thai prices for Thais in Thai script and lower that farang prices? Just like national parks.

I have lost faith in private Thai hospitals after they lowered their quote by nearly 50% after finding out I lived in Thailand.

[Colabamumbai]

I just wrote down those numbers after being charge 6,610. Baht before they would do the bloodwork, Un f........... real for a blood test to detect what type of Hepatitis C I have, after a liver scan told them in was Hep C Genotype 3. Ultrasound for liver 650 Baht not unreasonable. Self Pay.

I cannot believe that they bill the govt. that price for Thais, but I could be wrong.

Khon Kaen University Hospital Srinakarind, the liver hospital in Isaan.

[fred Kubasa]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

[uptheos]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

After you have lived here for a while, you will get to know that Thai's don't respond very often to emails, especially in English. Phone calls maybe, but in person is usually the way.

Don't send an email and expect a response.

[Peterphuket]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

After you have lived here for a while, you will get to know that Thai's don't respond very often to emails, especially in English. Phone calls maybe, but in person is usually the way.

Don't send an email and expect a response.

Whell, my experiance now, with the second email, when you get a bit angry, it helps most of the time.

[torpedo1970]

Lets hope this is the end of the hospital gravy train!

over the last 5 years i have seen the greed shining through. more and more but not only in hospitals, all over Thai society.

Last year i had a check of some mole/birth marks that had changed color etc.... at The Bangkok Pattaya Hospital.

i was told more or less that i had skin cancer and needed a surgery to remove several of these moles....

The pricing was OK' ísh from a European point. and the way it was sold in as a life threatening urgent treatment... i did not really fall for the hard sale....

was going home to Europe after one month and declined the surgery an that basis that i wanted a second opinion, and in my home country healthcare is free...

They got rather upset and said i most likely would die before i got home..... and they did only after pressure give me the documents from test taken so i could bring back home.

After test done back home, i did not have skin cancer and the suggested surgeries was all optional according to my home doctor....

So always get a second opinion folks.....

[torpedo1970]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

After you have lived here for a while, you will get to know that Thai's don't respond very often to emails, especially in English. Phone calls maybe, but in person is usually the way.

Don't send an email and expect a response.

they answer a message on their FaceBook page.... but never on E-mail....

one person i asked why said something in the way of, we dont have e-mail we only have Facebook.....

TIT

[jackanapes]

another issue being shoved under the carpet ? what has happened to the investigation into private hospital charges and where is the end result ?.

[geriatrickid]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

Your request is intelligent and reasonable but not feasible. The medical community is hesitant to embrace the option because they don't want to get bogged down answering emails, for which they are not paid. It would be difficult to invoice and collect for electronic consultations. As well, there is the fear of malpractice. Western MDs don't do emails either.

Will they have Thai and English language pages?

Thai prices for Thais in Thai script and lower that farang prices? Just like national parks.

I have lost faith in private Thai hospitals after they lowered their quote by nearly 50% after finding out I lived in Thailand.

Why are you upset? You saved money didn't you? Are you aware that the private hospitals still obtain a benefit from the Thai taxpayers and it is therefore to be expected that a lower fee would be charged to Thailand residents? Thai provate hospitals benefit because: medical personnel are still trained at state expense, health care facilities have a different tax structure than other business operations, the hospitals benefit from the national drug purchase program etc. The end result is that you benefited and yet you are angry. I don't understand why any resident would be upset when treated fairly.

another issue being shoved under the carpet ? what has happened to the investigation into private hospital charges and where is the end result ?.

The private hospitals are owned by some very wealthy and powerful entities. As you may recall they were active in the campaign against the former government because that government attempted to allow Thais of limited financial means access to the private for profit hospitals. The military administration is not going to antagonize its friends.

[kennw]

Have been asking BNH for the last week what the Baht 250 "other medical service charge" on my bill constituted, it represented 28% of the total service charges, doctor fee, nurse , The cashire at first told me it was a "service charge", then an"administration charge". Subsequent emails and phone call back to me still could not explain what specifically the charge was for. Appears to be a "walk in the door charge".

[balo]

I would call this a progress if it really will happen , we'll see.-... I always buy my drugs at the local pharmacies anyway , you learn your lesson after a few visits.

[rijb]

What about VAT, the service charge and the mandatory tip?

[Ulic]

This is only a half step. Public hospitals also need to post a price for service list so tourists and

ex-pats can compare and make an educated decision on where to spend there health-care dollars.

[jerry921]

Well, this is a nice try, but it won't work. If the government forces them to list the price for an operation to surgically fix an ingrown toenail, they will post a price, then when you go to pay they will tell you a different higher price. When you object, they will say the posted price is for the little toe, not the big toe you had done.

Or they'll tell you the posted price didn't include dressings and bandages and post-op care, or whatever.

My point is that the human body is so complicated, and the variety of medical treatments and operations so diverse, and the treatment alternatives for any given condition are varied enough, that no amount of forced price-listing will cover all the cases, and you'll be charged something other than the posted price. The alternative is to make the price lists so complicated that you won't be able to figure out which option applies in the first place without a medical degree and an accounting degree.

[geriatrickid]

I would call this a progress if it really will happen , we'll see.-... I always buy my drugs at the local pharmacies anyway , you learn your lesson after a few visits.

I have limited faith in the local pharmacies because I believe that they do not always source their drugs from reliable sources. I also believe that Thailand has a problem in the quality and efficacy of its drugs. The Thai FDA is not transparent nor open when it comes to the testing of products, i.e. are the products consistent, are the batches tested, do they contain the claimed active ingredient at the declared dose? The sole benefit of purchasing from a hospital pharmacy is that the likelihood of obtaining the actual drug is higher. However, this is no guarantee that the local hospital administration or pharmacists isn't substituting counterfeit crap for the real drug. If the hospital pharmacies stopped ripping off patients and treating the patients as a "captive market" they would become the pharmacy of choice for patients.

This is the sad reality of Thailand: It is difficult to have confidence in the pharmaceutical products used. It ii=s also impossible to have confidence in the qualifications and ethics of the pharmacist, assuming it is even a pharmacist dispensing the drugs.

Edited June 10, 2015 by geriatrickid

[CindyB]

Our hospital clinic gives an itemized list, with the exception of the breakdown of which medicine cost which amount. It seems impossible for them to break it down. So, if you get more than one prescription at a particular visit, you'll not know how much each different prescription costs. Maybe they can deal with this specific issue . . .

[buhi]

I would call this a progress if it really will happen , we'll see.-... I always buy my drugs at the local pharmacies anyway , you learn your lesson after a few visits.

I have limited faith in the local pharmacies because I believe that they do not always source their drugs from reliable sources. I also believe that Thailand has a problem in the quality and efficacy of its drugs. The Thai FDA is not transparent nor open when it comes to the testing of products, i.e. are the products consistent, are the batches tested, do they contain the claimed active ingredient at the declared dose? The sole benefit of purchasing from a hospital pharmacy is that the likelihood of obtaining the actual drug is higher. However, this is no guarantee that the local hospital administration or pharmacists isn't substituting counterfeit crap for the real drug. If the hospital pharmacies stopped ripping off patients and treating the patients as a "captive market" they would become the pharmacy of choice for patients.

This is the sad reality of Thailand: It is difficult to have confidence in the pharmaceutical products used. It ii=s also impossible to have confidence in the qualifications and ethics of the pharmacist, assuming it is even a pharmacist dispensing the drugs.

Know your pharmicist and doctor.

I refuse the medication prescribed at inflated prices at the hospital I attend and the doctors agree with me, that same can be bought at far less a cost from a reputable pharmacy.

[petedk]

I use a private hospital and find their services and fees, ( excluding prescriptions ), to be fair but wish you could communicate with the Doctor via Email after a treatment fails without having to make another appointment to tell him/her it failed.

" Take 2 of these daily for 2 weeks " and then after 1 week something bad or just nothing good happens so you must make another appointment when, via Internet , you could tell those results and get his/her advise. I wouldn't mind paying a fee for this service to avoid the time/expense of another visit.

Your request is intelligent and reasonable but not feasible. The medical community is hesitant to embrace the option because they don't want to get bogged down answering emails, for which they are not paid. It would be difficult to invoice and collect for electronic consultations. As well, there is the fear of malpractice. Western MDs don't do emails either.

Will they have Thai and English language pages?

Thai prices for Thais in Thai script and lower that farang prices? Just like national parks.

I have lost faith in private Thai hospitals after they lowered their quote by nearly 50% after finding out I lived in Thailand.

Why are you upset? You saved money didn't you? Are you aware that the private hospitals still obtain a benefit from the Thai taxpayers and it is therefore to be expected that a lower fee would be charged to Thailand residents? Thai provate hospitals benefit because: medical personnel are still trained at state expense, health care facilities have a different tax structure than other business operations, the hospitals benefit from the national drug purchase program etc. The end result is that you benefited and yet you are angry. I don't understand why any resident would be upset when treated fairly.

another issue being shoved under the carpet ? what has happened to the investigation into private hospital charges and where is the end result ?.

The private hospitals are owned by some very wealthy and powerful entities. As you may recall they were active in the campaign against the former government because that government attempted to allow Thais of limited financial means access to the private for profit hospitals. The military administration is not going to antagonize its friends.

In reply to your remark about being upset. I am not upset. Just stating a fact.

In fact I asked at another hospital and the operation there cost about 30% of the original quote at Bangkok hospital.

[nev]

I just wrote down those numbers after being charge 6,610. Baht before they would do the bloodwork, Un f........... real for a blood test to detect what type of Hepatitis C I have, after a liver scan told them in was Hep C Genotype 3. Ultrasound for liver 650 Baht not unreasonable. Self Pay.

I cannot believe that they bill the govt. that price for Thais, but I could be wrong.

Khon Kaen University Hospital Srinakarind, the liver hospital in Isaan.

I have just had a prostate operation at srinakharind hospital, and all I can say they are very professional the room was excellent staff excellent, the professor of the eurology did the operation, I paid extra to have it done after hours due to the urgency and the whole bill including 4 day stay in their VIP rooms came to just under 58,000 baht, no pay up front justca copy of your passport and my wife's I'd card,you pay in full on leaving and you get a garuntee from the doctor to present to your insurance company to claim

[lostmebike]

Lets hope this is the end of the hospital gravy train!

Can`t see an end to it .. ever.

Not when the bosses of such said institutions regularly instruct the doctors to charge whatever they think they can get away with. Let`s not also forget that private hospitals are just a way for doctors to make extra money after their day job so many are keen to inflate costs for a number of possible reasons, one obviously being self-gain.

Not conjecture, more like first hand info from the doctors and nurses we know.

[JGV]

When will these fees be available on web sites

JGV

[SEEDGER]

Hey Torpedo health care is not FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE your taxes or some else richer has paid for the service! It is not FREE!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Private hospitals told to show medical fees on websites

That's the headline on this news report. But did anyone else not notice, there's actually no mention anywhere in the news article about anyone or anything requiring the private hospitals to post fee info on their websites.

The article talks about the government requiring hospitals to allow patients to inquire about pricing prior to being admitted. And later it talks about the public health ministry planning to develop their own website showing fees for common inpatient surgeries...

But nothing about requiring the private hospitals to post their prices on their own websites, which they should be doing anyway, but aren't in many cases.

More government doubletalk here, or just another poorly written news announcement?

Edited June 13, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[heybuz]

i had an ear infection some time ago and went to a chemist for some antibiotics,on opening the packet and reading the instructions[aids drug could cause renal failure ]i declined to take

[Seastallion]

It all sounds good, but at the same time as enforcing all this, I hope they ramp up the anti-competition (anti-trust) laws (if Thailand has it) because collusion is the next step by the hospitals to keep prices inflated.