Insurance group chief livid over hefty medical bill, raises concern

The top executive of an insurance umbrella association has raised concern over alleged inflated charges imposed by private hospitals in the country on insured patients.

This comes after Mark O’Dell, who is the chief executive of the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (Liam), was reportedly slapped with a bill of close to RM19,000 for what he described as a minor hernia operation.

According to O’Dell (above), he did the “simple procedure” at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur recently, for which he had a one-night hospital stay before being discharged with a 13-page bill totalling RM18,837.55.

“How could a simple procedure with a one-night hospital stay result in a 13-page bill?” he said in an interview with health news portal CodeBlue.

The executive with over 40 years of experience in the life insurance business, however, declined to name the private hospital involved.

Elaborating further, O’Dell told the portal that he could not even understand some of the things that the hospital had charged in the bill.

The bill reportedly included charges for 95 line items across 13 different categories, including RM2,105.60 for medical and surgical supplies and RM3,850.30 for “equipment/instrumentation”.

Doctors’ charges were only billed for RM2,621 while medication was RM2,606.68.

Hospitals using ‘dual pricing’

In the interview, O’Dell also raised the issue of a potential dual charges system imposed by private hospitals on patients, where they allegedly would be more careful with patients who pay their bills out of pocket.

According to the Liam CEO, a doctor had once told him that he would practice more due care if a patient is paying their own bill.

“But if the patient has insurance, it doesn’t come into play. The doctor might order whatever he thinks is warranted, sometimes unnecessary, but the sky’s the limit,” O’Dell reportedly said.

“I think it’s very problematic if hospitals are using dual pricing systems,” he added.

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