Conserving Medisave for Big Bills

26 Apr 2007, The Straits Times

Question

Name of the Person: Hwang Liang Keng

Why he won't use Medisave for outpatient treatment

I laud Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's implementation of the scheme allowing citizens to use their Medisave accounts to pay for outpatient treatment for diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders and stroke.

I suffer from mild hypertension and recently tried to avail myself of the scheme but held back because I would have had to cough up up to 10 per cent more, even though some of it would come from my Medisave Account.

According to the Ministry of Health's guidelines, if a bill totals $35, the cash (non-deductible) component would be $30 and $4.25 would come from the Medisave Account. But there are additional payments of $0.75 (15 per cent co-payment) and $3.50 (Medisave Processing Fee). The total one needs to pay in cash is $34.25.

For a $50 bill, the figure rises to $36.50.

The polyclinic I visited had set aside a room staffed by a 'Medisave Financial Counsellor'.

Isn't the deployment of counsellors a waste of funds when this function can be performed easily by various counter staff at each clinic? The monitoring of the $300-a-year cap can be automated using the CPF Board's computer system.

Reply

Reply from MOH 

Conserving Medisave for Big Bills

Mr Hwang Liang Keng explained "Why he won't use Medisave for outpatient treatment" (20 Apr) as his polyclinic bills are small relative to the Medisave deductible of $30 and 15% co-payment.  We agree with Mr Hwang's approach as Medisave should be conserved for large bills, particularly for hospitalisation.

However, there are many chronically sick who do incur large outpatient bills in hospital specialist clinics or private clinics where the Medisave Scheme does come in useful.

Mr Hwang felt that the Polyclinic Financial Counsellors were a waste of resources as most polyclinic patients did not have to rely on the Medisave Scheme.  The Polyclinic Financial Counsellors do much more than helping patients with Medisave usage.  They are there to help the needy who are unable to pay for their treatment.  Many patients have found them useful, especially the elderly.