http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/160-reports-overcharging-made-moh-each-year
By
Kenneth Cheng
[email protected]
.
Published: 4:00 AM, March 1, 2017
Updated: 11:58 AM, March 1, 2017
SINGAPORE — In the past two years, the Ministry of Health (MOH) received an annual average of about 160 submissions relating to feedback on overcharging.
Minister of State (Health) Lam Pin Min revealed this in Parliament yesterday, in reply to a question from Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah.
Among other things, Dr Lee had asked for the number of reports the MOH had received of patients being overcharged by doctors in private practice in the past five years.
Dr Lam noted that because of a change in the data-collection system and classification of bill-related feedback, the ministry could not compare yearly figures over the past five years accurately. He said the MOH learnt of 23 cases via email last year, and the bulk of them (90 per cent) were against private medical institutions, with the remainder against public healthcare institutions.
Contacted by TODAY, the MOH could not give a similar breakdown in relation to the total pieces of feedback it received on overcharging each year.
Dr Lee, meanwhile, said she had received feedback from residents that doctors issued non-standard drugs to Pioneer Generation patients, for which they have to pay out of their own pockets.
She asked if the MOH monitored the issuance of such drugs and if there were substitutes so this would not hit these patients’ pockets.
Responding, Dr Lam encouraged those who require non-standard drugs but cannot afford them to tap the Medication Assistance Fund to pay for costly non-standard medicines.
The MOH had set up the Agency for Care Effectiveness in 2015 to promote appropriate medical care.
Dr Lam noted that the agency would be issuing guidelines on cost-effective drugs for treating common medical ailments “in time to come”, without elaborating.
Nominated MP K Thanaletchimi asked whether the ministry was considering expandingthe role of community pharmacists to give them prescribing rights and to offer cost-effective medicines, while Sembawang GRC MP Vikram Nair suggested pharmacists could prescribe medicines for simple conditions.
On prescribing rights, Dr Lam said the MOH would have to seriously weigh their pros and cons, since it has received patient feedback that collecting prescriptive drugs directly from the doctor “adds a lot of convenience, rather than have (patients) travel to … a pharmacy”.
He pointed out that community pharmacists are already allowed to prescribe some drugs, such as those for the common cold and runny nose.
By
Kenneth Cheng
[email protected]
.
Published: 4:00 AM, March 1, 2017
Updated: 11:58 AM, March 1, 2017
SINGAPORE — In the past two years, the Ministry of Health (MOH) received an annual average of about 160 submissions relating to feedback on overcharging.
Minister of State (Health) Lam Pin Min revealed this in Parliament yesterday, in reply to a question from Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah.
Among other things, Dr Lee had asked for the number of reports the MOH had received of patients being overcharged by doctors in private practice in the past five years.
Dr Lam noted that because of a change in the data-collection system and classification of bill-related feedback, the ministry could not compare yearly figures over the past five years accurately. He said the MOH learnt of 23 cases via email last year, and the bulk of them (90 per cent) were against private medical institutions, with the remainder against public healthcare institutions.
Contacted by TODAY, the MOH could not give a similar breakdown in relation to the total pieces of feedback it received on overcharging each year.
Dr Lee, meanwhile, said she had received feedback from residents that doctors issued non-standard drugs to Pioneer Generation patients, for which they have to pay out of their own pockets.
She asked if the MOH monitored the issuance of such drugs and if there were substitutes so this would not hit these patients’ pockets.
Responding, Dr Lam encouraged those who require non-standard drugs but cannot afford them to tap the Medication Assistance Fund to pay for costly non-standard medicines.
The MOH had set up the Agency for Care Effectiveness in 2015 to promote appropriate medical care.
Dr Lam noted that the agency would be issuing guidelines on cost-effective drugs for treating common medical ailments “in time to come”, without elaborating.
Nominated MP K Thanaletchimi asked whether the ministry was considering expandingthe role of community pharmacists to give them prescribing rights and to offer cost-effective medicines, while Sembawang GRC MP Vikram Nair suggested pharmacists could prescribe medicines for simple conditions.
On prescribing rights, Dr Lam said the MOH would have to seriously weigh their pros and cons, since it has received patient feedback that collecting prescriptive drugs directly from the doctor “adds a lot of convenience, rather than have (patients) travel to … a pharmacy”.
He pointed out that community pharmacists are already allowed to prescribe some drugs, such as those for the common cold and runny nose.
