Docs and ING in stalemate over proposal

Star:
KUALA LUMPUR: Talks between the Joint Inter-hospital Healthcare Committee (JIHC) and ING Insurance Bhd have reached a stalemate.
JIHC chairman Dr Steven Chow said the last discussion was on March 31 and it came to a halt, claiming that ING “refused to budge from its proposed terms and conditions in their new Healthcare Service Panel Agreement (HSPA)”.
He said that this was concerning “fee splitting”, which would compromise the quality of healthcare and breach the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act (PHFSA) 1998.
“It’s like someone saying ‘Doctor, we'll give you a certain number of patients a year but you give us discount on your fees. So you continue to be on our panel and receive our patients’,” he told a press conference at a hospital here.
Dr Chow said that ING’s proposal, a part of their exercise to set up a panel network of specialists in the Klang Valley, could erode the patient’s right to seek treatment from their preferred doctors.
More than one million people are covered under the ING Insurance’s employment benefit scheme.
“Those who stand to lose the most are the patients. There are patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, and they are suddenly asked to go to another hospital. This is unacceptable,” he said.
The JIHC committee represents over 600 specialists in eight hospitals – Pantai Medical Centre, Sunway Hospital, Prince Court Medical Centre, Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, Assunta Hospital, Ampang Puteri Hospital, Tawakal Hospital and Damansara Specialist Hospital – in the Klang Valley.
JIHC is also a part of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Association of Malaysia with more than 4,000 doctors in the various states.
“This is unfortunate for ING policy holders as those who wish to see us will have to pay upfront and claim later from the insurer.”
He also said that JIHC had written on March 18 to the director-general of Health Tan Sri Ismail Merican asking for the Ministry’s position on the matter.
When contacted, ING said that they were “unaware that these negotiations have come to an end and have not received official notification from JIHC”.
“We are still very keen on continuing negotiations in the hope of arriving at a mutual agreement that would benefit policy-holders,” the statement said.