Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan says all private hospitals are now
able to provide the average bill sizes for the top 70 medical
conditions.
This after hand-holding in the past year.
But for comparability, Mr Khaw said data for a particular
hospital is published only if the number of patients for that
medical condition exceeded 30 for the year.
He said about 40 medical conditions yielded sufficient volume in
the private hospitals, and their bill sizes can now be compared on
the Health Ministry’s website.
Writing in his blog, Mr Khaw described this is a major achievement
in the Ministry’s drive to promote bill size
transparency.
Not surprisingly, private hospital bill sizes were generally higher
than public hospitals.
But there are exceptions.
Mr Khaw pointed out that Mount Alvernia Hospital offered the lowest
unsubsidised bill size for the laser treatment of a diabetic eye
disease at $1,188.
This compared to $1,273 at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which had the
lowest Class A bill among public hospitals.
Mr Khaw said patients should shop around for their elective
surgeries.
And hospitals should also reflect on how they could do better than
their peers.
This, he said, was the greatest value of bill size
transparency.
-- 938Live