KUALA LUMPUR: Covid-19 patients in private hospitals will have to foot their own bills, said Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh.
He said patients would have to pay on their own or via their health insurance if their provider was willing to bear the cost.
Dr Kuljit said treatment charges for Covid-19 would be similar to that involving any other viral infections.
"Private hospitals will charge just like any viral infections like H1N1 or any viral pneumonia. The fee doesn't change."
"It is not going to be cheaper but I doubt that it would be more expensive," he told the New Straits Times adding that costs are expected to differ among the respective private hospitals.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali said the mechanism for insurance companies to cover Covid-19 expenses is still being fine-tuned by the Finance Ministry, the Health Ministry, Bank Negara Malaysia and insurance providers.
"For now, the private sector is empowered to treat Covid-19 patients who can afford to pay for the medical costs and treatment themselves," he said in a statement here today.
Earlier Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said expatriates, the business community who can afford treatment at private hospitals are free to do so and do not need referrals from public health facilities.
He also said a total of 96 private hospitals had agreed to come on board to accept Covid-19 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said that the government had already started referring non-Covid-19 cases to the facilities during the second wave itself.
Questions on who will foot the cost of Covid-19 treatment hogged the public sphere since the government declared a state of emergency two weeks ago.
In declaring the emergency, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the private healthcare sector can be co-opted in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Emergency Ordinance which was put to effect as a result also allows authorities to take over resources from the private sector.
Muhyiddin in a separate statement on January 17, said that decanting patients to private hospitals will reduce the pressure on public hospitals and the heavily burdened health workers. He said RM100 million has been allocated for the exercise.
Dr Kuljit, however, said the allocation is to only fund the decanting exercise from the government to private hospitals.
"RM100 million is only for them to use if they are going to transfer patients from the government to private hospitals. That means it is for their patients and not the patients who walk into our hospitals," he said, adding that the same applied for both Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 cases alike.