THE Health Ministry will seek explanation from the National Heart Institute (IJN) on its plans to increase fees for patients referred by the ministry, says Datuk Lukanisman Awang.
The Deputy Health Minister said it is important for the matter to be explained as an increase in IJN’s fees would have an impact on the ministry, which is a client of the hospital.
“We will hold talks with the Finance Ministry and IJN to find out in detail the reasons behind the proposed fee hike. We cannot influence the fees as IJN is not under us,” he told a press conference in Parliament yesterday.
It was recently reported that IJN intended to increase fees by 10% to 40% for patients referred by the Health Ministry.
The report stated that the proposed hike was due to inflationary pressure and rising operating cost, which impacted the hospital’s current fee structure that had been in place since 2003.
Newly-minted IJN chief executive officer Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Ezani Md Taib was quoted as saying that the proposed plan would be based on the procedures.
He cited an example where a bypass surgery done in private hospitals could range between RM110,000 and RM120,000 compared to between RM40,000 and RM50,000 charged by IJN for the same procedure.
