Doctors’ fees set to go up by 14%

The Star, Friday July 27, 2012

By LOH FOON FONG
foonfong@thestar.com.my

 (From URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/7/27/nation/11737518&sec=nation)

KUALA LUMPUR: Doctors and specialists' fees in the private sector are likely to see a 14% increase if the hike is approved by the Cabinet, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

He said the Health Ministry carried out the revision once every five years and was finalising dental charges before the revised fee structure is presented to the Cabinet for approval.

“We hope to bring it to the Cabinet within this year,” he said after the ANOC Neuroscience and Orthopaedic Centre launch here yesterday.

Liow said it was not known when the new fee structure would be implemented.

Sophisticated machine: Liow checking out a RM600,000 iDEXA body composition scan machine – the first of its kind in Malaysia – that serves as an objective marker for osteoporosis at the ANOC Neuroscience and Orthopaedic Centre in Bangsar. Looking on are Dr Chee (left) and the centre’s director Dr Lee Joon Kiong.

 

He said his ministry revised the fees to make it competitive because the cost here was low when compared with other countries due to Government control.

He added that while patients were not complaining about doctors' fees, the issue of exorbitant hospital charges had become a cause for concern.

The ministry, he noted, was working on resolving this matter through meetings with private hospitals as well as insurance and managed care organisations.

Liow also said there were 71 neurosurgeons in the country with half of them in the private sector.
ANOC chairman Dr Chee Chee Pin said the establishment was the first outpatient centre of its kind in the country.

“Equipped with highly sophisticated imaging facilities, ANOC is able to provide a full body MRI and detailed scan of the brain and spinal cord. muscles and nerves without radiation,” he said.

This would enable neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and rheumatologists to carry out early detection of conditions such as stroke, brain and spinal cord tumours, spondylosis, disc prolapse and other brain, spine, bone and joint conditions, added Dr Chee.