Despite protest from doctors, health minister says Peka B40 fee will be based on 2006 prices

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said today consultation and health screening fees at private clinics will follow the 2006 fee schedule despite protests from anxious general practitioners (GPs) who felt the rate to be unsustainable.

Dzulkefly said the fees will be based on the Fee Schedule under the Private Healthcare and Services Act (Regulations) 2006. According to the Seventh Schedule, consultation fees for general practitioners are RM10 to RM35, while medical examination fees for non-specialists are RM40 to RM200.

“Private clinics play an important role in helping the government combat curable diseases…therefore private medical general practitioners registered with the Ministry of Health are invited to join the programme,” his official statement read.

“But MoH must explain...that the rate of fees to be offered to general practitioners who offer services to patients of the Peka B40 programme will be based on the schedule fee,” he said, referring to the Health Ministry.

GPs have reportedly shunned the programme, citing low rates offered by the Health Ministry.

The government and private practitioners have bickered about the fee rates over the last few years.

In August last year, deputy director-general of health (medical) Datuk Dr Azman Abu Bakar told a town hall meeting with angry GPs that the Health Ministry may finally agree to review the rates. He said a revision of the charges was due since the last time this was done was in 2006.

Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Association of Malaysia (FPMPAM) president Dr Steven Chow Kim Weng had told Malay Mail that the Health Ministry originally offered private doctors RM35 for the first visit and RM30 for the second visit if the results were abnormal and the patient was referred subsequently to a government clinic.

Doctors, however, have asked for a single payment of RM65 to cover both the visits regardless if the blood tests results were normal or otherwise.

The rate demanded likely stemmed from the costs to conduct further tests at health laboratories, which tend to be expensive.

But Dzulkefly said clinics participating in the PekaB40 scheme can send samples to any private labs registered with PHCorp free of charge.

PHCorp is a healthcare management company fully-owned by the government.

“There will be no payments made for this as all charges will be covered by PHCorp,” the minister said.

The Peka B40 is a scheme for the country’s bottom 40 percentile of income-earners aged 50 and above. An estimated 800,000 will benefit from this scheme.