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New Straits Times

[UPDATED] Doctors submit memo to PMO protesting Price Control Act

PUTRAJAYA: Hundreds of doctors across Malaysia gathered today to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister's Office, protesting the application of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 on the medical profession. While the doctors supported the new price display mechanism, they objected to using a separate Act for enforcement, as private clinics were already strictly regulated under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998. "We support transparency in the health sector. But we can't compare professional services with sales. That's all. It's not about the price of the medicine. "It is the patients' right to know all the prices. It has been there since 2006. It's not new," said Malaysian Medical Association president-elect Datuk Dr Thirunavukarasu Rajoo. He said that the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 was an inappropriate law used to govern healthcare facilities, as it was not a retail business. The memorandum stressed that MMA were not allowed to discuss the matter with the government despite repeated requests for stakeholder engagement and a separate request to meet the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living. He added that, coupled with fears of overregulation, the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 is already in place to regulate clinical governance, patient safety, and fair pricing. The requirement to display the price of medicine was enforced on May 1 under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011. The gathering, the first of its kind organised by the MMA, addressed four core issues plaguing the medical industry. The group highlighted that the general practitioners' fees, which are set out in the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998, have been stagnant for over 33 years. Dr Thirunavukarasu said that the rates have not reflected the realities of rising operational costs, inflation, increasing staff salaries, technology adoption, regulatory requirements and the escalating expectations for documentation and digitalisation. The group also urged the government to regulate Third-Party Administrators (TPA), which act as the intermediary between insurers and GPs. The group alleged that TPAs have arbitrarily imposed high administrative fees on clinics, fixed low consultation rates between RM10-RM35, caused delays in payment of claims, and had begun outsourcing long-term prescription medicine to third-party pharmacies via e-prescriptions, bypassing the attending doctors. "It is not aligned with evidence-based clinical management and threatens patient safety by removing continuity and exposing patients to increased rates of complications of non-communicable diseases," the memorandum read. The group also urged the government to oversee the rise of foreign equity in the healthcare sector, as many foreign-owned private healthcare facilities were targeting medical tourists and high-income patients and diverting resources from the local population and inflating healthcare costs. Among the 15 medical associations that participated in the protest gathering in Putrajaya were the MMA, Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, Federation of Private Medical Practitioners Associations, Malaysia, Malaysian Association for Advancement of Functional and Interdisciplinary Medicine and Malaysian Private Dental Practitioners Association.