Transfers to state hospital refused management, programme, patients, starting, private

thainews

State-run hospitals are starting to refuse transfers of acute patients from private hospitals due to the Social Security Office (SSO)'s new financial management system.

21-3-2012 09:00

  "All beds in medical schools and state hospitals are no longer available for SS [social security] members who are referred from a private hospital," Dr Suradej Waleeittikul, deputy secretary-general of the SSO, said yesterday.

The financial management programme called "diagnosis related groups" for patients with critical conditions and serious diseases went into effect in January.

Over 9 million employees have registered as members of the scheme and about 90 private hospitals nationwide have registered as healthcare providers under the scheme.

An employee will be assigned a state or private hospital as the prime provider.

Previously, private hospitals received Bt2,400 per year from the SSO for each SS member assigned to them. Then, the hospitals would manage this budget by themselves.

However, the SSO found that some private hospitals did not provide medical treatment to social security patients or transferred them to another hospital to receive better treatment because they wanted to save their budget. This was a major problem for patients in accessing healthcare under the scheme.

"If they transfer patients to other hospitals, that means they spend some of the money under the per capita subsidy to pay the other hospital for the patients' medical expenses," he told The Nation in an interview.

Under the new programme, the SSO will directly pay a private hospital for the cost of treatment for an inpatient with a critical condition.

But after the implementation of the new financial management programme, many private hospitals transferred a lot of patients to medical schools or state hospital as they could no longer shoulder the financial burden for a referral case.

Some medical schools and state hospitals are now starting to deny medical treatment for those patients transferred from private hospitals because they do not have enough beds for emergency cases.

"I don't want to say the medical schools or other state hospitals are now refusing to receive patients under social security and transferred from private hospitals. I would rather say that they do not have enough beds for patients," he said.

"They can no longer provide medical treatment for patients with acute conditions who are transferred from a private hospital as they still have a lot of patients who also have been waiting for medical treatment. They also don't want to be blamed for bad service," he said.

The SSO will talk with all hospitals registered with it including private hospitals to find a solution for this problem.

"We don't want them to transfer patients to medical schools or other hospitals if they can still provide medical treatment for their patients," he said.

"If they still transfer patients to receive medical treatment to other hospitals even though they can provide treatment for the patients, we will recall our money back from them or seek other financial punishment for them," he added.

PONGPHON SARNSAMAK,
CHULARAT SAENGPASSA

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