Payment mechanisms details will be discussed among MoF, MoH, BNM and insurance players
by RAHIMI YUNUS / pic by TMR FILE
THE government is drawing up a payment mechanism for Covid-19 patients at private hospitals to alleviate the cost burden for treatment.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali said the government is refining the details of the payment mechanism with various stakeholders including the Finance Ministry (MoF), Health Ministry (MoH), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and insurance industry players.
“As of now, the role of the private sector is empowered to treat Covid-19 patients who can afford the medical and treatment costs.
“MoH will continue to get private hospitals and other stakeholders involved to ensure the smooth management of Covid-19 and public health services are not affected,” Mohd Zuki said in a statement yesterday.
This is among the matters that are being discussed by the Emergency Management Technical Committee in one of its four focuses that is to integrate public and private hospitals’ capability during the emergency period.
On the public-private hospital front, Mohd Zuki said the operations of public hospitals including university hospitals, army hospitals and private hospitals will be hybrid based on the cluster hospital concept under the integrated Covid-19 Control Centre.
He said the technical committee is also looking at optimising existing laboratory capacity particularly at government departments and public universities for large-scale Covid-19 testing and tracing.
Besides the focus on hospital resources, the technical committee has outlined three other main focuses which are mobilising federal and state public service resources; using National Service Training Programme (PLKN) camps and other suitable facilities as temporary detention facilities; and collecting feedback from the people on the emergency.
The technical committee is identifying government buildings and facilities across the nation that are suitable to be set up as swab test centres, which falls under the federal-state resources mobilisation focus.
Mohd Zuki also said the technical committee looked at a temporary alignment of civil servants to services in need of additional support such as the health and safety services.
On the PLKN facilities front, he said the camps will be leased as temporary detention centres to improve physical distancing at prisons and immigration detention centres.
Sixteen PLKN camps have been identified for the purpose including the facilities in Bukit Mertajam, Penang; Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor; Papar, Sabah; Sri Ledang, Johor and Langkawi, Kedah.
Mohd Zuki said the police are in talks with the owners of suitable facilities to be made as temporary lockups.
To date, he said the technical committee has convened four times since its establishment recently.
Read our earlier report
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