Press Releases
Government to roll out pilot programme for price transparency for private hospitals (with photo)
The Government together with the Hong Kong Private Hospitals
Association (HKPHA) will roll out a pilot programme for
price transparency for private hospitals on October 1. The
pilot programme will enable patients to obtain more
comprehensive information on hospital fees, which will
assist them to make informed choices and better financial
preparation when using private medical services. The rights
and interests of patients can be further protected.
Under the pilot programme, members of the HKPHA, including
all the 11 private hospitals in Hong Kong, will try out the
following three price transparency measures on a voluntary
basis:
* encouraging hospitals and doctors to provide budget
estimates for patients receiving non-emergency
operations/procedures (such as thyroidectomy, colonoscopy,
LASIK, knee arthroscopy) at the hospitals, as a reference
for the overall costs involved;
* publicising the fee schedules for major chargeable items
(such as operating theatre charges and charges for common
nursing procedures) on hospital websites; and
* publicising historical cost statistics for common
treatments/procedures (such as vaginal delivery and
caesarean section) on hospital websites.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, said
today (September 29), "The Government has been striving to
enhance the price transparency of private healthcare
facilities (PHFs). We hope that private hospitals will
acquire relevant experience by trying out and implementing
the measures to enhance price transparency under the pilot
programme. On the other hand, the Government will continue
to engage stakeholders and consider incorporating these
measures into the new bill to regulate PHFs.
"All members of the HKPHA have joined the pilot programme,
showing that they have attached great importance to the
enhancement of price transparency in healthcare services. In
fact, the private hospitals have partially implemented the
above three measures since August this year, which enables
the healthcare professionals and other frontline workers to
familiarise with the relevant operational details."
The Government launched a three-month public consultation on
revamping the regulatory regime for PHFs in December 2014.
According to the public views received, generally speaking,
there was solid support for having a more modernised and
comprehensive regulatory control for different categories of
PHFs in Hong Kong, including enhancing price transparency.
The Government plans to introduce to the Legislative Council
the relevant bill to regulate PHFs in the first half of
2017.
Ends/Thursday, September 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:15
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