MOH Publication of 'Total Operation Fees' to include fees in Private Hospitals

1.        To increase fees transparency and help patients make more informed decisions, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will be refining its publication on ‘Total Operation Fees’ on the MOH website from 5 October 2016. The changes encompass widening the coverage to include ‘Total Operation Fees’ (with breakdown) in private hospitals and increasing the number of common procedures published.

Background

2.        MOH has been publishing “Total Hospital Bills” sizes for common procedures in public and private hospitals on MOH’s website since 2003. This has provided useful price data to both patients and healthcare providers. In 2014, MOH also started publishing ‘Total Operation Fees’ for 65 common procedures in the public hospitals, so as to provide greater transparency on the component of the total hospital bill due to surgical procedures. This data enables patients to better estimate their operation fees. 

Changes to Publication on ‘Total Operation Fees’

3.        From 5 October 2016, MOH will also publish ‘Total Operation Fees’ for private hospitals. The fees will be broken down into three components – ‘Surgeon fees’, ‘Anaesthetist fees’ and procedure-related ‘Facility fees’. Such information will enable patients who are considering treatment at private hospitals to estimate the fees charged by the doctors and the hospital for the various listed procedures. There is no equivalent breakdown for the public hospitals as the surgeons and anaesthetists in public hospitals do not charge a separate fee.

4.        MOH will also expand the number of common procedures published from 65 to 141 procedures[1]. This will cover 74% and 79% of the total volume of surgical cases at public and private hospitals respectively.

5.        To provide an indication of the range of fee, the published data includes the 25^th percentile and 75^th percentile figures.

Method for Deriving Data

6.        The data published is based on actual hospital bills and fee breakdowns submitted by public and private hospitals for the period of 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2015. The data will be updated annually.

Weblinks

7.        The data for ‘Total Operation Fees’ can be found at    www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/costs_and_financing/hospital-charges/Total_Operation_Fees_By_Procedure.html.  

8.         The data for ‘Total Hospital Bills’ can be found at         www.moh.gov.sg/content/moh_web/home/costs_and_financing/hospital-charges/Total-Hospital-Bills-By-condition-procedure.html.

[1] To ensure statistical significance, only procedures with at least 30 cases will be published.