PUTRAJAYA: Those seeking outpatient treatment for dental services at government medical facilities will continue to enjoy subsidised rates despite the 2017 revision of prices.
Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said, although there is a need to increase the prices for current services, the government remains committed to providing high subsidy for the people, including for outpatient treatment.
“Subsidies for outpatient treatment, for example tooth scaling and polishing, would cost RM55 at government clinics (under the new revision).
“However, there is a high subsidy involved for outpatient treatment, whereby patients pay a minimum of only RM2.
“This also shows that the current subsidised rate has doubled,” he said in a statement today.
Patients still pay a heavily subsidised rate for dental charges, such as RM2 for dental fillings and RM1 for extractions, he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said itemised billings provided at hospitals will detail the actual cost of the treatment, subsidised by the government. He also clarified that the charges listed on the Fees (Medical) (Amendment) Order 2017 for outpatients are for government hospitals and clinics’ internal use.
Fee exemptions for specific groups is also maintained, in accordance with the outlined guidelines, he said.
Dr Noor Hisham noted that it has been 35 years since dental charged were last revised, despite the fact that the cost of such treatments have naturally increased since then.
Yesterday, a message of what appeared to be a government circular detailing new dental charges was circulated on social media.
This included new charges for tooth extraction, which had gone up from RM1 to RM15, scaling and polishing from RM2 to RM55, and filling from RM2 to RM25.
The changes, which were supposed to have come into effect yesterday (Feb 1), has been postponed to March 1.