Revision of Fees Charged by Public Healthcare Groups

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Health given that from time to time healthcare services run by public healthcare groups may revise the fees for their services (a) how many price revisions have there been in the past three years; (b) whether these institutions have to justify to the Ministry before revising such fees; (c) whether there is a standing procedure for these institutions to announce and explain such fee revisions to the public; and (d) whether the Ministry ensures that the public is adequately informed of any fee revisions instead of discovering such revisions only when they pay for their medication and treatment.

The public healthcare institutions review their fees, like hospital ward charges, consultation fees and emergency department charges, from time to time. Where necessary, fees are adjusted and the adjustments may be implemented at different times for different institutions. Such fee revisions take into account changes in operating costs and enable the institutions to maintain and enhance their quality of care and service to patients.

The public healthcare institutions revise their fees only after careful consideration, and the Ministry of Health (MOH) works with the public healthcare institutions to minimise the impact on patients.

The public healthcare institutions also adopt several measures to ensure that patients are adequately informed of the fee revisions. For example, the public healthcare institutions generally display their revised fees on their websites and also at the clinics and registration counters. They also highlight the fees during the financial counselling process where relevant. They advise patients of the fee revisions, whenever patients visit or are admitted soon after the fee revision.

MOH recently enhanced subsidies at the specialist outpatient clinics and the polyclinics for the low- to middle-income families and Pioneers, to reduce the cost of subsidised treatment for them. Subsidised patients with financial difficulties can also approach the medical social workers to apply for assistance, such as MediFund.