Moves to control medical treatments and drug costs will be difficult
Play
PRIVATE hospitals have warned that government attempts to control the cost of medical treatments and medicine will be difficult, as various facilities have different operational costs and private hospitals - unlike pharmacies - shoulder heavier costs in t
They called on the government to study the facts before implementing any controls, saying it must be remembered that private hospitals in Thailand are up to 35 per cent cheaper than private hospitals in Singapore.
After meeting to discuss the matter at the Department of Health Service Support (DHSS) yesterday, Dr Chalerm Hanpanich, president of the Private Hospitals Association, said pricing at public and private hospitals was not comparable due to cost differences.
Private facilities had personnel and other costs, he said, such as building construction, land purchases and investment fund repayments – while public hospitals were funded by the state.
Affirming that private hospitals abided by the 1998 Sanatorium Act, he said: “All Thais have either one of three health security funds to cover medical bills anyway. And private facilities are just an alternative for people.”
Chalerm said he would wait to see what a central committee set up by the Public Health Ministry last week to tackle the issue comes up with first before deciding whether to set a price ceiling on private hospital medicines.
The association’s secretary-general, Dr Pongpat Patanavanich, said that while private facilities treated emergency patients in accordance with the policy of free treatment for life-and-death cases and referred such people to their subscribed hospitals, the government and the public should understand that private hospitals also shoulder expenses and costs.
“Such a policy should also be clear in terms of the expense range for emergency illnesses and treatments so the private hospitals won’t suffer heavy losses,” he said. “We don’t want to make a profit from people’s lives but we also want you to understand the investment [our members have made].”
Another meeting will be held today to discuss the urgent-treatment policy.
Negotiating medicine prices
The head of the National Legislative Assembly’s subcommittee on the standard of medical treatment pricing, Dr Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, said an ongoing study on nine private hospitals had found that outpatients’ flu treatment cost from Bt2,000 to Bt3,000 compared to Bt500 to Bt800 for public hospitals.
Dr Pratheep Sajjamit, a former expert on medical expenses at an insurance company, said the Food and Drug Administration could control central pricing for medicines at private hospitals and he called for the establishment of a central committee to set drug prices.
Pratheep cited his work experience in negotiating medicine prices, saying the cost of medicines varied depending on where they were purchased – a drug sold for Bt100 in a rural area could be sold for Bt80 in the city and Bt45 near a medical school.
“No place on Earth would let a hospital charge drug prices without controls,” he said.
The cost of other expenses should not be included in a medicine’s price, he added.
DHSS deputy chief Dr Thares Karasnairaviwong said it was initially agreed that private hospitals would clearly state treatment prices while a website (www.thailandmedicalhub.net) would show 80 medical treatment prices.
Public Health Minister Dr Rajata Rajatanavin agreed last week to address the problem of unreasonably high prices charged by some private hospitals at the request of Thai Medical Error Network president Preeyanan Lorsermvattana.
After accepting the network’s petition, which garnered 33,000 signatures, Rajata moved to set up the central committee to probe the matter.
