Retroactive charges for upgrading hospital wards aims to 'discourage' unfair use of subsidies: Ong Ye Kung

CNA05-07

SINGAPORE: Having retroactive charges for the upgrading of hospital wards discourages patients from selecting lower-class wards at the start to secure more subsidies for expensive treatments, said ...

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selecting lower-class wards at the start to secure more subsidies for expensive treatments, said ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.channelnewsasia.com/retroactive-charges-upgrading-hospital-wards-aims-discourage-unfair-use-subsidies-4317431\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"IE00BD6J9T35.USD","symbol_name":"NEUBERGER BERMAN NEXT GENERATION MOBILITY \"A\" (USD) ACC","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://www.channelnewsasia.com/retroactive-charges-upgrading-hospital-wards-aims-discourage-unfair-use-subsidies-4317431","article_id":"2433212054","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--uwj57vVU--/c_crop,h_719,w_1278,x_166,y_23/c_fill,g_auto,h_468,w_830/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mediacorp/cna/image/2024/05/07/ong_ye_kung_parliament_may_7.jpg?itok=7E8WLza4"],"rights":null,"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2433212054","pubTimestamp":1715061595,"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"can_highlight","name":"CNA"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"There is “a different consideration” when it comes to charges for the upgrading of hospital wards, says Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"channelnewsasia.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"IE00BD6J9T35.USD":"NEUBERGER BERMAN NEXT GENERATION MOBILITY \"A\" (USD) ACC","SG9999014005.SGD":"United 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stay in a higher-class ward and then downgrade to a lower-class ward towards the end of their stay, they will receive subsidies based on the respective ward classes.”\n“This is fair,” Mr Ong said, adding that public hospitals will find ways to support patients financially if requests to downgrade to a lower-class ward are due to unaffordability issues.\nHowever, there is “a different consideration” when it comes to the upgrading of hospital wards, he said in his response to parliamentary questions from Member of Parliament (MP) Ang Wei Neng (PAP-West Coast) and Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai.\n“We have to discourage patients from selecting lower ward classes to secure more subsidies for more costly treatments, such as surgery and ICU (intensive care unit), at the beginning of their stay and then switch to higher ward classes once these more expensive treatments are completed,” he said.\nHe added that “many of these patients are not of lower income and could have chosen the higher ward class from the outset”.\n“That is why if a patient upgrades, the level of subsidies will be adjusted retroactively.”\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n                            05:02 Min\n            \n\n\n\nWhen patients stay in a higher class ward and then downgrade to a lower ward class towards the end of their stay, they will receive subsidies based on the respective ward classes. “This is fair,” said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung. Replying to Parliamentary questions on Tuesday (May 7), he pointed out that where the request to downgrade is due to unaffordability because of complications or unexpected additional costs, public hospitals will find ways to support them financially. For upgrading of wards, he stressed the need to discourage patients from selecting lower ward classes to secure more subsidies for more costly treatments and then switch to higher ward classes once these treatments are completed. Mr Ong said many of these patients are not of lower income and could have chosen the higher ward class from the outset. That is why if a patient upgrades, the level of subsidies will be adjusted retroactively, he added.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe issue of retroactive charging for patients who opt to transfer to higher-class wards first emerged in a letter published on the Straits Times' Forum page last month.\nIn the letter, Mr David Kong wrote about how his 98-year-old mother was first admitted to the high-dependency ward in the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) as a Class C patient.\nBut the ward, which accommodates five patients, was “consistently noisy” and his mother found it difficult to rest, he wrote.\nMr Kong’s mother was transferred to a general ward a week later and the family opted for an A1 ward – a single room for a “quieter environment”. However, the family was told that doing so means that the hospital bill for their mother’s “earlier stay as a Class C patient would be retroactively changed to reflect her new Class A1 status”. \nThe A1 ward is a private and non-subsidised ward type, based on SGH’s website.\nDescribing this retroactive charging as “illogical and unfair”, Mr Kong said: “A patient should be charged Class C rates for the period she stayed in a Class C ward, not Class A1 rates for services and amenities she did not consume.”\nWhen CNA contacted the Ministry of Health (MOH) regarding the issue last month, a spokesperson said that it is important to ensure that government subsidies “are targeted at where they are needed most”. \n“If there are medical reasons why a patient may need to be isolated from other patients after surgery, our public hospitals will provide the necessary facilities subsidised at the patient’s chosen ward class,” the emailed reply said.\n“Patients are also counselled on the financial implications before upgrading their ward class, so they can decide whether they want to go ahead with the ward change,” it added.\nIn his supplementary questions on Tuesday, Mr Ang, the MP, asked if patients who require an upgrade but are “not financially very strong” can appeal against the retroactive charges.\nMr Ang also raised the scenario of patients who are not allowed to downgrade to a cheaper ward after having stayed at a higher-class ward previously at the hospital.\n“The only time they can escape this is when they are admitted to A&E then they can go to a lower-class (ward),” he said, citing feedback from his residents.\nMr Ong replied that “everyone has the right to appeal” but authorities are “trying to stop a certain behaviour which (they) don’t think is right”.\nHe added that patients are counselled financially at the beginning of every hospital stay, and decisions are made by patients “with their eyes open”.\nIn cases where downgrades are not allowed, Mr Ong noted that “a very established process of means testing” is in place currently.\n“So long as they meet the means testing criteria, they can downgrade,” he said. “So, I think the specific cases the member might have come across might be a case where they didn't manage to meet the means testing criteria.”\nMr Ong added that those with affordability issues can tap on MediFund – an endowment fund set up by the government for lower-income Singaporeans – which serves as the “last line of defense” to ensure those who need help can “always afford hospital stay in public health institutions”.","kind":null,"is_publish_news":null,"is_publish_highlight":null,"is_publish_live":null,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.22.4","shortVersion":"4.22.4","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2433212054"}