January 21, 2021 @ 9:00am
KUALA LUMPUR: Private hospitals are urging the government to compel insurance companies to revise their policies and cover the treatment cost of Covid-19 patients.

Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said this was the most decent solution in light of the state of emergency.

"Rejecting patients for us means coughing up fines up to RM5 million or jail time.

"While we are happy to help the government, some of us will take in patients at the risk of going belly-up.
"But the same is not expected of insurance companies."

"The government has to make similar demands (with the insurance companies) so that we can treat them without burdening taxpayers," Dr Kuljit told the New Straits Times.

He was referring to new laws under the state of emergency which allow the government to direct private hospitals to take in Covid-19 patients and give public healthcare facilities some breathing space.

Earlier, Dr Kuljit appealed to the government to consider the plight of insurance policyholders who could not go to hospitals that were full and had no option but to come to private facilities and pay out of their own pocket.

Dr Kuljit said the RM100 million funding the government had set aside for private hospitals to treat Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients was unlikely to be sufficient.

He confirmed that costs and subsidies per patient had yet to be decided.

APHM is in talks with the Health Ministry regarding non-Covid-19 patients from public hospitals, who would be transferred to private hospitals but do not have insurance coverage.

Dr Kuljit said private hospitals could not treat these patients for free as they had fixed capital expenditures.

"We (private hospitals) have seen record low visits for consultation and follow-up, and are surviving only by managing costs and operations.

"If we keep absorbing these costs, we will go bankrupt."

Meanwhile, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) president Datuk Dr Marimuthu Nadason called on Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to compel insurance companies to cover Covid-19 treatment for policyholders due to the state of the emergency.

"The health services (sector) is in a worse state than ever. It is overstretched and cannot take any more patients."

He said with hospitals saying that they were willing to do their part it was time for insurance companies to do the right thing by giving their policy holders Covid-19 treatment and hospitalisation options during the nation's hour of need.

"They should not hide behind legalities, such as Covid-19 is not one of the 'illnesses' spelt out in their policy, or (coming out with) statements that no country in the world has coverage for Covid-19."

Marimuthu was referring to an earlier statement by Life Insurance Association of Malaysia, General Insurance Association of Malaysia and Malaysian Takaful Association.
Once the option is made available, Marimuthu said the government had to identify patients, who can afford to stay in private hospitals and send them to such facilities.

Meanwhile in the statement, insurance industry players said they were working with the ministry and Bank Negara Malaysia to explore ways to ease some of the expenses of patients whose conditions were required them to be treated in private hospitals.

"The insurance and takaful industry is fully-supportive of the government's call on the private and public partnership to manage the increasing cases of Covid-19 patients," it said in the joint statement.

The associations, however, said pandemic-related risks were generally not covered under any insurance or takaful plan due to the difficulty in pricing for coverage relating to such an event that may occur once in a lifetime, with an incalculable impact and cost.

"Nevertheless, a majority of life insurers and takaful operators have provided supplementary benefits, such as daily hospital income to be paid to the affected policyholders or certificate holders.

"Efforts were swiftly galvanised by the industry to put in place relief measures to help policyholders/certificate holders cope with the financial impact of the pandemic.

"Among others, these included the deferment of policy premiums/takaful contributions that have benefited over one million policyholders/certificate holders with premium/contributions valued over RM1.6 billion," the associations said.

They also said a RM8 million Covid-19 testing fund was set up in March last year to enable medical and health insurance policyholders to undergo testing.

According to the statement, individual insurance and takaful operators had rolled out various schemes as part of an industry-wide effort to aid policyholders/certificate holders.

Source: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2021/01/659262/compel-insurance-firms-cover-covid-19-treatment