Debated in Parliament on 8 Jan 2025.
Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health what support is available for patients at public healthcare institutions where the issuance of billing invoices has been significantly delayed through no fault of the patient and where the delay has led to the patient facing difficulty with making insurance claims for medical bills due to the bill being past the insurer's billing deadline.
Mr Speaker, in general, insurers do not reject claims if the delayed submission was of no fault of the patient. However, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is aware of a few cases where billing delays at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) have resulted in patients facing difficulty in making insurance claims. NCCS has provided affected policyholders with letters to their insurers to explain the delay in claim submission. More resources are being deployed to NCCS to clear the outstanding bills. Policyholders who still face issues with claim submissions after sharing NCCS' letter with their insurers may approach NCCS for more support.
Mr Yip Hon Weng.
Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for her response. Does the Minister of State agree that residents may feel anxious and unfairly treated if insurance claims are denied due to technicalities, especially in cases where hospital bills arrive late, causing delays in submission?
Furthermore, does the Minister of State acknowledge that policyholders are often at a disadvantage in negotiating with insurers as the illness becomes a pre-existing condition once diagnosed, limiting their ability to switch to a more accommodating provider?
And can institutions step in to assist residents in appealing to insurers? Additionally, can MOH, as the regulator and key player in the healthcare system, play a more active role in helping patients negotiate with insurance companies in such situations?
Mr Speaker, there are a few questions that the Member has raised and I would ask that we be careful not to conflate the issues.
The first point on the issue of any difficulties arising from billing delays, I can acknowledge and appreciate that that would be of concern to residents or patients. As I have explained, in this particular situation with NCCS, they have provided assistance.
And in general, the Public Healthcare Institutions do offer support by providing interim bills for insurance reviews and letters to policyholders on reasons of delay in claim submission if this happens, so, there is already support.
The other matters raised by the Member relate to issues of portability and that is also something that we had addressed in another question that was raised previously. There are concerns. We have studied this and we have already indicated that there are some downsides of portability and unintended consequences, including increase of premiums. So, this is a separate issue.
On the issue of rejection of claims. This is something that does get surfaced every once in a while. The point is, it really depends on the facts. If there are some concerns and issues of unfairness, the matter can be surfaced to the Ministry, and we can take a look and see how we can assist.
PAPERCUTS