MEDISAVE RULES ENSURE EFFICIENT EMERGENCY SERVICES WHILE SUPPORTING CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT

We thank Mr Gerard Ortega for his letter “Harmonise MediSave usage rules for chronic illness treatment” (Jan 20). MediSave use under the MediSave 500/700 scheme is already aligned for treatment of Chronic Disease Management Programme conditions across polyclinics and hospitals’ specialist outpatient clinics.

However, Mr Ortega’s case involved diagnosis and management of his condition at an emergency department, where treatment is not MediSave-claimable. This keeps processes simple for hospitals to provide timely vital emergency services to patients.

To use MediSave at Singapore’s public healthcare institutions, patients have to sign an authorisation to allow one or multiple public health institutions to claim on the patient’s behalf. Mr Ortega was asked to sign the authorisation twice, as his previous authorisation was inadvertently missed by the staff. Sembawang Polyclinic has since taken steps to avoid future occurrences. 

The Ministry of Health will continue to work with healthcare institutions to streamline the authorisation process to bring greater convenience to patients and their family members.

Navanetharaja Gopala Krishnan
Director, Finance Policy
Ministry of Health