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29-06-2014, 02:30 PM
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KTPH sends debt collector to go after patients
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
KTPH sends debt collector to go after patients   June 29th, 2014 |  Author: Editorial A reader has forwarded his friend’s letter to TRE, just to show how heartless our “privatized” hospitals have become. Alexandra Health Pte Ltd, which operates Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, has engaged debt collector Accolade Advisory Asia Pte Ltd to collect an outstanding balance of $621.20 from the reader’s friend. According to its website [Link], Accolade Advisory Asia provides “total receivables management solutions to the risk manager”. It said, “Companies and financial institutions have turned to us for debt management, debt recovery as well as the specialised/customised research capabilities required for effective receivables management.” It also said that it has established “reliable and experienced associates around the world” to help recover overseas debts. Hence, if someone was to skip town, the company can engage their overseas associates to trace and find him. The letter ended by saying: “If we do not receive your payment within (7) days from the date of this letter, action will be taken to recover the debt without further reference to you.”  Privatization of our public hospitals To help make our hospitals more “efficient”, the government has embarked on a “privatization” programme. The government set up a private company called, “MOH Holdings Pte Ltd” (MOHH) to oversee all the public health institutions in Singapore. MOHH is legally owned by [Link]:
(Chua Geok Wah is the Accountant-General of Singapore) According to its website information [Link], MOHH is the holding company of Singapore’s public healthcare assets. MOHH currently undertakes strategic initiatives for the Ministry of Health and the public healthcare institutions. These include:
Our public hospitals within MOHH are divided into six broad clusters. They include:
Liak Teng Lit is the CEO of Alexandra Health  Liak Teng Lit Alexandra Health was established on 1 April 2008, as a healthcare cluster in the north that currently manages the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. As part of an integrated healthcare system to serve the community in the region, Alexandra Health will build and oversee the Yishun Community Hospital, Admiralty Medical Centre and an Integrated Healthcare Development @ Woodlands. This integrated healthcare network will be operational from end December 2015 to 2022. The Group Chief Executive Officer of Alexandra Health System is Mr Liak Teng Lit. He is also the Deputy Chairman of NEA. Last month, he scolded Singaporeans for their “poor upbringing” in response to some patrons who did not want to return trays at hawker centres (‘NEA Dty Chairman scolds S’poreans for poor upbringing‘), Mr Liak then said, “If you all eat properly and not eat until a mess, how will you dirty your hands (for returning trays)? It’s problem of upbringing. Everyone should depend on oneself (to return trays). Don’t depend on others. Everyone should really reflect on this.” Last year, in an interview with the Straits Times (ST) [Link], he also said of Singaporeans, “In hawker centres we eat like pigs, with food and tissue all over the tables. It’s a disgrace. We don’t eat like that at home.” Mr Liak also frowns on subsidising healthcare. In an interview with ST on 20 July 2012 (‘Why the dung beetle is his hero ‘), it was reported: He (Liak) frowns upon how subsidies have inflated the demand for health care and led to shortages: ‘The truth is when we go for a buffet, almost all of us eat a little bit more than we normally do. If you subsidise something, at the margin, there will always be more demand.’ Subsidised wards are so cheap, some children may prefer their elderly parents to stay a day or two longer. But if every patient delays discharge by just half a day, Singapore will need to build another Singapore General Hospital that costs $2 billion, and about half a billion a year in subsidies, to run. The demand for subsidies is a ‘bottomless pit’, he warns. ‘If you’re going to subsidise my petrol, I won’t drive the Toyota Prius, I will drive the Lexus 460. ‘Follow the British National Health Service? That may mean that the Government has to increase the goods and services tax to, say, 20 per cent to cover the cost of these additional beds,’ he says, adding that Singapore’s 3M framework – Medisave, MediShield and Medifund – is sound. As diseases are increasingly diagnosed at the molecular level with more expensive drugs, costs will shoot through the roof. His fear for Singaporeans today is that they clamour for their rights but disown their responsibilities. ‘In cyberspace, there are howling monkeys who scream, shout and demoralise others. ‘My worry is that everybody is screaming about his rights as a citizen to get subsidies, but he doesn’t feel he has a responsibility to contribute or pay his taxes. They have the right to treatment but don’t have a responsibility to take care of their health,’ he says. In that interview, he also told the ST reporter that his hero is the dung beetle: He (Liak) says straight-faced that his hero is the dung beetle, which feeds on faeces. ‘They walk the ground, burrow underground, clean up the environment, recycle nutrients and improve soil aeration. Most of all, they solve problems others leave behind.’ The reader who wrote to TRE said, “I am very disappointed that KTPH SEND such a letter to my friend to chase for the outstanding payments.” It’s not known how and why our public health system has transformed itself into such commercialized one, even engaging debt collectors with international linkages and issuing letters of demand to its citizen patients. During the National Day Rally last year, PM Lee promised: “Besides housing, we will also give Singaporeans more assurance over life’s uncertainties, especially healthcare. Working adults feel the pressure taking care of growing children, also looking after elderly parents. People with chronic illnesses worry, worry about the cost of consultations, the cost of medicines, maybe a few cents a day but day after day, year after year. When you have high blood pressure, the doctor prescribes something to you. He says, please take this, please take this for the rest of your life and you have to take it seriously. Older people worry about the medical bills which they may face and worry about the burden which they may place on their children. So we will improve healthcare financing to give Singaporeans more peace of mind.” Later, the MediShield Life Review Committee (MLRC) was formed to review Singapore’s healthcare financing and on Friday (27 Jun), the Government announced that it has accepted all the recommendations by the Committee with regard to the new MediShield Life scheme (‘Medishield Life: ‘Premiums will need to increase’‘). MediShield Life will roll out in end-2015 next year. It remains to be seen if after the implementation of MediShield Life, Singaporeans will still be chased by debt collectors sent-in by our public hospitals, since PM Lee promised that the new improved healthcare financing will give Singaporeans “more peace of mind”. What do you think? Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com. 
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