Unbelievable expensive!

[South]

From personal experience ...... over 100k a day in 2005, ICU BSH, 6 days and 'detubulised' myself moving to a private hospital in the next province .... down to 45k a week.

More recently, a year ago, 74k, 02:00 to 18:00 same day, BSH. It's a business, make sure you are insured or guaranteed, you will get a big/bigger/massive bill at the end of your inpatient time.

I have insurance

[thaiduncankk]

I had really bad food poisoning and was in a private hospital for 2 days and had a similar bill about 3 years ago.

The IV was full of all manner of drugs that worked. You have to weigh that up as well.

The only surprise here is that people are still surprised by the cost of Hospital bills....?

Let us be real, the same drugs would have been administered at a Government hospital for a tenth of the price.

[thaiduncankk]

From personal experience ...... over 100k a day in 2005, ICU BSH, 6 days and 'detubulised' myself moving to a private hospital in the next province .... down to 45k a week.

More recently, a year ago, 74k, 02:00 to 18:00 same day, BSH. It's a business, make sure you are insured or guaranteed, you will get a big/bigger/massive bill at the end of your inpatient time.

I have insurance

Let's be realistic. The lad had an infection, which after 1 day it was acceptable to go home.

So, it could not have been too dangerous.

But people on here try to defend the extortionate cost of a 1 night stay ????????

[sunnyjim5]

I had really bad food poisoning and was in a private hospital for 2 days and had a similar bill about 3 years ago.

The IV was full of all manner of drugs that worked. You have to weigh that up as well.

The only surprise here is that people are still surprised by the cost of Hospital bills....?

Let us be real, the same drugs would have been administered at a Government hospital for a tenth of the price.

One tenth of which price and for what ?

Are you really trying to say that anything that costs 1000Bht is available for 100 Bht in a Government hospital ?

[South]

From personal experience ...... over 100k a day in 2005, ICU BSH, 6 days and 'detubulised' myself moving to a private hospital in the next province .... down to 45k a week.

More recently, a year ago, 74k, 02:00 to 18:00 same day, BSH. It's a business, make sure you are insured or guaranteed, you will get a big/bigger/massive bill at the end of your inpatient time.

I have insurance

Let's be realistic. The lad had an infection, which after 1 day it was acceptable to go home.

So, it could not have been too dangerous.

But people on here try to defend the extortionate cost of a 1 night stay ????????

Not defending at all .... private hospitals are there as a business and a business only. They will give you more medication than you need, they will try and keep you in for longer than you need be, they will try and get you to have an MRI or whatever for the sole reason of boosting your payment and their profits.

As others have already stated, the government hospitals are a fraction of the cost but with that you sometimes have to queue for hours on end, stay in a (mixed) ward and you will not get the same personal care as you would in a private hospital.

At the end of the day, it is up to you where you go, financially or fully insured, I know where I like to go.

[inbangkok]

From personal experience ...... over 100k a day in 2005, ICU BSH, 6 days and 'detubulised' myself moving to a private hospital in the next province .... down to 45k a week.

More recently, a year ago, 74k, 02:00 to 18:00 same day, BSH. It's a business, make sure you are insured or guaranteed, you will get a big/bigger/massive bill at the end of your inpatient time.

I have insurance

Let's be realistic. The lad had an infection, which after 1 day it was acceptable to go home.

So, it could not have been too dangerous.

But people on here try to defend the extortionate cost of a 1 night stay ????????

Yep. I defend it in the exact same way I defend Apples extortionate cost for an iPhone. Don't wanna pay an expensive hospital bill, don't go to a fancy private hospital. Don't want to pay for an expensive iphone, buy an Android. Very simple stuff......

Some people on here also seem to have a very unrealistic view of how much these fancy private hospitals cost to operate. They are not cheap by any means.

[HooHaa]

Surely the infection could not have been that bad if he only needed 1 night hospitalization ?

He got the infection following the operation, he went back to mission 3 times they still could not fix the problem, it came to a point where he was very poorly hence going to private hospital!

So, they saved his life but it wasn't worth the money?

Some of those line items are frightening though.

Edited March 16, 2016 by HooHaa

[Sheryl]

What is frightening to me is that anyone is shocked at a hospital bill of only ~31K baht.

Yes, it always costs less - usually about a third of the cost - at a government as opposed to private hospital.

But hospital bills, if it is a prolonged hospitalization and involves specialized surgery, ICU care etc, can easily top 1 million baht even at a government hospital (>3 million at a private one).

I get the impression on this thread that some people think health care is, for some reason, an extremely inexpensive thing to provide/receive. Indeed some people seem to think it should cost far less than a simple care repair.

Not the case, anywhere in the world. Those who assume health care is a low-ticket item because they do not pay out of pocket at the point of care in their home country would do well to research what that "free" care actually costs their country's taxpayers and what the average actual cost of a typical hospitalization is back home.

There also seems to be a lack of appreciation for what hospital care entails. There is 24 hour nursing care. Whether the patient ever had need of it or not, it was there, and this has to be paid for. Ditto emergency equipment and supply on ready standby. There are doctors always on call. There are infection control committees/practices, computerized record keeping systems (with IT professionals to maintain them) and a whole host of other things on top of the basics of accomodations and food and whatever lab tests are done and treatments provided.

The difference between costs in government and private hospitals is not pure profit for the latter. Salaries for all personnel are significantly higher at private hospitals, equipment and supplies are more abundant and newer. Not saying they do not turn a handsome profit -- they do -- but it is erroneous to think that the government hospital cost is "actual" and the private hospital cost in excess of that is entirely profit.

[NancyL]

From personal experience ...... over 100k a day in 2005, ICU BSH, 6 days and 'detubulised' myself moving to a private hospital in the next province .... down to 45k a week.

More recently, a year ago, 74k, 02:00 to 18:00 same day, BSH. It's a business, make sure you are insured or guaranteed, you will get a big/bigger/massive bill at the end of your inpatient time.

I have insurance

Let's be realistic. The lad had an infection, which after 1 day it was acceptable to go home.

So, it could not have been too dangerous.

But people on here try to defend the extortionate cost of a 1 night stay ????????

He was in the hospital for two full days and one night. That could have been for close to 40 hours or more that they were pumping him full of IV antibiotics that knocked back the infection. They could have been using newer, patented (i.e. expensive) antibiotics, too, that aren't on the government hospital's standard list, too. In the long run, they probably saved the guy money by getting him out so soon.

I had a similar experience in the U.S. when I had pneumonia -- I was held in the hallway of the E/R for 12 hours with an IV drip of antibiotics which did a world of good -- I could feel myself getting better by the hour. It was never recorded as a hospital admission and was a way for the hospital to keep the cost of treatment down.

[maewang99]

drugs that are not generic and have to be imported, and high tech equipment such as certain scanning machines, the same.. a cheap baht and lots of school graduates that are the best at memorization does not mean health care is cheap across the board if you have any kind of serious illness. agree 100% wirth Sheryl. we all need to not only have insurance but cash ready at hand, in millions of baht. in fact, I don't believe BUPA when they say they have me covered and I only have BUPA so that I have a card that identifies I should be admitted, at any hospital I need. insurance here is an admission card, not coverage is also something I figure. but I'm a scardy cat when it comes to this. so I got it saved and on the side for one thing: medical care in the future. I don't spend anywhere near what I could.... for a long long time... because I am scared about this stuff.

Edited March 17, 2016 by maewang99

[Tolley]

I think the only way you can judge the cost of the thai private hospital system is by regional standards and by that measure they are very expensive and in terms of quality of care lacking compared to the likes of say Malaysia or India.

That is not to say there aren't good doctors or hospitals in Thailand just that by and large the standards are not up t scratch for the money they are charging.

And you always feel like you are going to be ripped off by extra charges overbilling and over servicing etc

I had a recent experience at Pattaya Memorial where i needed a script that couldn't be filled outside. Now they charged me 700 baht for a consult that lasted all of thirty seconds and then another thousand baht for the script. That was triple the price i would pay in Australia. I expected to pay more for the script but the doctor consult was an insult especiall considering my gf did a consult at the very same time and spent 15 mins with the doctor and they charged her 100 baht. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

[sunnyjim5]

I think the only way you can judge the cost of the thai private hospital system is by regional standards and by that measure they are very expensive and in terms of quality of care lacking compared to the likes of say Malaysia or India.

That is not to say there aren't good doctors or hospitals in Thailand just that by and large the standards are not up t scratch for the money they are charging.

And you always feel like you are going to be ripped off by extra charges overbilling and over servicing etc

I had a recent experience at Pattaya Memorial where i needed a script that couldn't be filled outside. Now they charged me 700 baht for a consult that lasted all of thirty seconds and then another thousand baht for the script. That was triple the price i would pay in Australia. I expected to pay more for the script but the doctor consult was an insult especiall considering my gf did a consult at the very same time and spent 15 mins with the doctor and they charged her 100 baht. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Are you saying that Thai people can access private consultations at Pattaya Memorial at a preferential rate?

If so this news needs to be spread widely as many would pay 100 Bht for a 15 minute private consultation.

[Sheryl]

I think the only way you can judge the cost of the thai private hospital system is by regional standards and by that measure they are very expensive and in terms of quality of care lacking compared to the likes of say Malaysia or India.

That is not to say there aren't good doctors or hospitals in Thailand just that by and large the standards are not up t scratch for the money they are charging.

I would agree with this. Of course, India is not a good yardstick for comparison because the sheer volume of patients they have renders them able to charge far less and still make a good profit. But yes, comparatively speaking within Asia, Thai private hospitals have become expensive relative to quality. Low utilization by Thais (due to their universal access at government hospitals) and popularity with wealthy Middle Easterners has I think contributed to the very steep rise in costs that have occurred here in the past 5-10 years.

Being a careful medical consumer -- in particular, taking the time to research and carefully select one's doctor(s) -- will improve the value for money obtained in Thai private hospitals.