Medicine and procedure price display key to addressing medical costs
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has called for stronger price transparency measures in private healthcare to help curb rising medical costs and protect consumers.
In the central bank’s latest Annual Report 2024, it highlighted five key strategic thrusts, with the first focusing on improving transparency in medical pricing.
“Initiatives under this pillar include the display of retail prices for drugs and the publication of price ranges for common healthcare services,” BNM stated in the report.
This would allow both patients and insurers to compare costs across different providers, encouraging competition and preventing excessive charges.
Another proposal in the report was the creation of a national medical inflation monitoring system to track price trends and provide regular updates.
BNM said it is also working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to review regulatory frameworks governing private hospitals to strengthen oversight.
Other reform measures include introducing Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG), which BNM said would set standard fees for treatments based on medical conditions.
The central bank also proposes a base medical insurance/takaful product to ensure more Malaysians can afford health coverage.
Expanding the supply of mid-tier hospital beds through the Rakan KKM initiative is another step to make quality healthcare more accessible, which the central bank said could also be achieved by “incentivising the expansion of not-for-profit hospitals.”
The fifth thrust was enhancing electronic medical records (EMR) interoperability across hospitals is expected to reduce duplicate diagnostic tests and lower overall healthcare costs.
Malaysia’s medical inflation is rising at a double-digit rate, outpacing both global and Asia-Pacific averages.
Between 2021 and 2023, the total cost of medical and health insurance/takaful (MHIT) claims surged by 73 per cent, far exceeding the 21 per cent increase in premiums collected.
Insurance providers responded by repeatedly increasing premiums, before BNM intervened by temporarily capping the annual increase in an attempt to reduce the financial shock.
Source: Malay Mail
Category: MJN enews
