Management of outstanding hospital bills

20 Jul 2005

Question No:  109  

Question

Name of the Person: Mdm Ho Geok Choo, MP for West Coast GRC

To ask the Minister for Health (a) how do hospitals recover outstanding bills from patients and (b) what is the experience of the hospitals with regard to outsourcing of outstanding bill collection to debt collectors.

Reply

Reply From MOH

Generally, our hospitals take the following approach to recover outstanding hospital bills. 

Within 10 days after discharge, patients should receive their final hospital bills. Most patients would settle their bills upon receipt. 

If a patient has not responded after one month, the hospital will send a reminder. A second reminder, if necessary, will be sent during the following month. For a patient who expresses financial difficulty, the hospital would explore with him options for financial assistance where appropriate, or consider payment by instalments. 

For a small minority who do not respond after 2 reminders, the hospital would send a third reminder. If there is still no response, some hospitals may refer the case to a debt management agency to collect payment on their behalf. 

A debt collector is engaged by the hospital only after all internal collection efforts have been exhausted. Such agents are stringently selected and contractually bound to use legal and professional measures to collect debts. 

The hospitals regularly evaluate their debt collectors on their professionalism and performance. The experience so far has been productive.