Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Uncollected charges of restructured hospitals

The Minister for Health, Gan Kim Yong, gave a detailed reply to a question in Parliament about the unpaid bills in restructured hospitals. http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120229-0000054/Hospitals-left-with-S$110m-in-unpaid-bills  The average amount of bill written off each year is $30 million.

Reading this report, the following questions popped up in my mind:

a) What is the total revenue of the restructured hospitals, and what percentage is reflected by the written off amount?
b) Is this written off percentage at an acceptable level, compared to commercial benchmarks?
c) Why is the Minister answering this type of question in Parliament, when the commercial operations of the restructured hospitals are supposed to be outside of the responsibility of his Ministry?

I have been quite confused about the state of affairs in Singapore.




2 comments:

Singapore's 5 Minute Investment Diary said...

Reference your point (c);
Why is the Minister answering this type of question ....

Like you I am equally confused.

Just like why we are even contemplating giving $1.2 billion to private, profitable bus companies.

Weng Mao Fa said...

Restructured hospitals are teaching hospitals as well.
Subsidsed patients might be part of case study or research project.
Medical student/fellows are very happy to meet patients. If not, how they earn a medicine degree?

In this background, why patient pay consultant fee? It was $20, now $25, future....?

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