I REFER to the article “Budget 2020: Invest in solutions now to save on healthcare costs later” (The Star, Aug 28, online at https://bit.ly/2lBbU7R) by Dr Khor Swee Kheng who, among others, wrote: “An example is that doctors are paid for each intervention (thus incentivising them to perform more and more procedures), rather than being efficient.”
In our quest to combat increasing healthcare costs, one must not forget the existential purpose of healthcare in the first place – the patient. Hence, it is grossly inaccurate to imply that in being reimbursed for multiple procedures, the doctor is thus incentivised to perform more procedures.