Press Releases
Comments in respose to MOH: 'Medifund criteria are public'
8 October 2009
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08 Oct 2009, Today
Question
Name of the Person: Sgcynic
Comments in response to MOH: "Medifund criteria are public"
'Kindly define your criterion "unable to pay for the medical charges incurred". Does "able to pay" include: Able to monetize (forced to sell) one's flat; having relatives to borrow from?
Vague, non-transparent rules. At least qualification for other schemes eg. Workfare state clearly qualifying income levels. Medifund may not even kick in when one is down and out.'
Name of the Person: Steven
'I remember there was a rule where an inpatient cannot ask to downgrade his ward class. Is this rule also changed?'
Reply
Name of the Person: Karen Tan (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health
The guidelines are meant to be general so that the Medifund committees of each hospital would have the flexibility to decide on the level of assistance to be given. We think that this would be better than a one-size-fits-all criteria. In fact, the approval rate for Medifund is about 99% for the last five years. In FY2007, $50 million was disbursed, up from $40 million in FY2006. The Medifund Committee would generally give special considerations to such factors in deciding each case:
a) regular costly medical treatment;
b) engaging caregivers to the sick and physically dependent family member;
c) supporting more than one family member who needs major medical treatment on chronic illnesses
d) supporting another sick elderly family member when applicant himself/ herself is elderly
e) coming up with significant proportion of income for cash payment for basic housing installments/ rent, in addition to medical bills.
Subject to a means-test, , a Class A/B1 patients and patients transferred from private hospitals may seek a downgrading to a subsidized ward.