MOH taking aggressive steps to arrest rising medical insurance premiums

The Health Ministry is taking aggressive measures to address the issue of medical inflation, which has led to rising health insurance premiums.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad expects the issue to be resolved soon.

“(It’s a) work in progress. We will address this issue not just through the DRG (Diagnosis-Related Group) approach, as it is not a ‘silver bullet’ to solving medical cost inflation.

“More importantly, we will take a multi-pronged approach,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday.

He said the implementation of DRG is expected to enhance transparency in patient treatment charges that will, in turn, help control rising medical costs, which is one of the key factors driving up health insurance premiums.

“Hopefully, we can implement DRG alongside another initiative... which is the display of medicine prices.

“Hospitals have already accepted this. As for private general practitioner clinics, they are requesting a moratorium, possibly for another month or two,” he said.

Dzulkefly said that the display of medicine prices could help lower health insurance premiums by enabling insurance companies to assess the actual cost of treatment more accurately.

However, the move has been opposed by the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations Malaysia which views the implementation of medicine price displays at GP clinics as irrelevant and potentially misleading for patients.

- Bernama

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