Hospital transfers costly: SSO
Transfers for treatment at other hospitals with different levels of service under the Social Security Office are costly and SSO bosses should set up a "clearing house" to cover different costs, a seminar in Bangkok was told yesterday.
"Higher level hospitals" did not have enough vacancies, or had long waiting lists due to better services, and while they cost more, they were more popular with SSO beneficiaries, according to Dr Sonthaya Phruenglamphoo, who told of SSO-sponsored research.
The study also suggested a "clearing house" should be set up to cover expenses, which were about Bt800 million a year.
There were 162,146 transfers for treatment between higher-level and lower-level hospitals from 2005-2009. These were common in the SSO scheme for diseases that require expensive treatment - for cancer, eye-related defects, respiratory and vascular problems.
One long-standing problem has been that hospitals charging higher rates tend to not admit patients from other hospitals, and in many cases refuse to admit them, because the expense they will usually have to endure exceeds the per-head subsidy paid by the SSO.
In 2009, transfers cost the SSO Bt859 million. Of this, some Bt324 million was for outpatient services, while Bt535 million was for internal patient cases.
A fund could be founded to support the clearing house, which should be fully authorised to make payments to cover minimum costs incurred for transfers, the study advised.
Other proposals included listing and registering "willing" hospitals with good standards to ensure prompt or emergency transfers, the setting up of a centre to coordinate transfers, easier transfer processes, and speedy payments for higher expenses to hospitals willing to take SSO beneficiaries.
