Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan says all private hospitals are now able to provide the average bill sizes for the top 70 medical conditions.
This after hand-holding in the past year.
But for comparability, Mr Khaw said data for a particular hospital is published only if the number of patients for that medical condition exceeded 30 for the year.
He said about 40 medical conditions yielded sufficient volume in the
private hospitals, and their bill sizes can now be compared on the
Health Ministry’s website.
Writing in his blog, Mr Khaw described this is a major achievement in the Ministry’s drive to promote bill size transparency.
Not surprisingly, private hospital bill sizes were generally higher than public hospitals.
But there are exceptions.
Mr Khaw pointed out that Mount Alvernia Hospital offered the lowest
unsubsidised bill size for the laser treatment of a diabetic eye disease
at $1,188.
This compared to $1,273 at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which had the lowest Class A bill among public hospitals.
Mr Khaw said patients should shop around for their elective surgeries.
And hospitals should also reflect on how they could do better than their peers.
This, he said, was the greatest value of bill size transparency.
-- 938Live