Insurance firms call private hospitals to ‘step up’ against Covid-19

 

General Insurance Association of Malaysia (Piam) chairperson Antony Lee has urged all sectors including private hospitals to “step up” their efforts against the Covid-19 pandemic.

This comes as the Health Ministry and the private sector discuss how to integrate private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients.

Among the key considerations is what payment options patients will have.

In an interview on radio station BFM 89.9 this morning, Lee said insurance companies alone could not shoulder the costs of Covid-19 care, which could run into “billions”.

“There is still dialogue ongoing about how we should find a system that takes care of Category 1 and 2 patients (while) the government takes care of Category 3, 4 and 5 patients [...]

“They (the government) recognise this could run into billions of ringgit and there is no way that insurance as an industry alone can take this on. This needs everybody on board. All sectors, I think, need to step up here and really help in this emergency,” he said.

While insurance firms worldwide generally do not cover pandemic-related risks, Lee said they agreed to help the government with Covid-19 as a “corporate social responsibility initiative”.

“And private hospitals need to step up as well.

“They have to recognise that this is a time where everyone has to be on board and we have to look at how efficient can we (be to) treat it. And standards may have to be different in order to prevent people from losing lives,” he said when asked about who should foot the bill for private healthcare.

Lee explained that insurance companies could not fully cover Covid-19 treatment costs because many features of the virus remained unknown. This prevented them from determining risks, in turn making it hard to put a price tag on insurance policies for the virus.

Piam comprises 26 insurance and reinsurance companies that offer general insurance policies in Malaysia.

Private hospitals: Insurers should step up

Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Kuljit Singh previously shared that stakeholders are urging insurance firms to reconsider their stance to not cover Covid-19 treatment costs.

"We are now in a pandemic. It is an emergency. They should relook into it. Insurance companies should pay as Covid-19 treatment is not expensive, only a lot of observation, oxygen supply, and such.

“But of course, if one is admitted into the intensive care unit, the cost would be higher," he told Malaysiakini last week.

Covid-19 patients are sorted into one of five categories - 1 (asymptomatic), 2 (mild symptoms), 3 (serious symptoms), 4 (pneumonia and needs oxygen) and 5 (critical illness with multi-organ failure).

Typically, only those in the latter three categories hospitalised for treatment.

The government has reached out to private hospitals for assistance as public healthcare becomes strained by the growing number of Covid-19 cases.

Stakeholders will engage in the third round of discussions tomorrow before the integration plan rolls out next week. - Mkini