KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 – mySalam today refuted patients’ claims of public hospitals charging them RM40 for medical reports for critical illness claims under the government health protection scheme.
mySalam board of trustees chairman Johan Mahmood Merican said the Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a circular last August 14 to all hospital directors, state health department directors, and directors of institutions to exempt all medical report charges for mySalam applicants.
Johan also said in a statement in response to CodeBlue’s story about a patient named Hairul Anuar Omar from Ayer Hitam, Johor — who was forced to sleep outside Selayang Hospital, Selangor, to get treated for liver cirrhosis and a host of other health problems the next day after his initial visit — that mySalam had rejected the patient’s claim submitted last October 24 because his discharge note was incomplete.
Hairul’s documents also lacked an official chop and signature of the examining doctor, while several pages of the application form were also missing.
However, Johan said mySalam would assist Hairul, who had complained to Ayer Hitam MP Wee Ka Siong, to ensure successful processing of his claim.
“At the same time, the statement that the complainant was charged RM40 for a medical report is not true. No charge was imposed on the patient when he applied for a medical report at the Medical Records Department, Selayang Hospital, on October 14, 2019,” said Johan.
Johan also said mySalam had rejected the October claim of another patient, Lalitha Selvakumar, because she had already successfully claimed the maximum 14-day RM700 hospitalisation benefit last April 21 for the period of February 10 to February 24 this year.
“Therefore, because the claims limit for the year 2019 was reached, her additional claim on October 14 2019 was not approved.”
Like Hairul, Lalitha, who was hospitalised for 21 days for autoimmune disease SLE at Sultanah Fatimah Muar Specialist Hospital, alleged that she was charged RM40 for each medical report at the MOH facility to file a mySalam claim.
mySalam beneficiaries can file their claims for RM8,000 lump sum cash benefit when diagnosed with any critical illness from January 1 this year, or RM700 when hospitalised for maximum 14 days for any condition, by scanning the required documents and uploading them on the mySalam portal. mySalam is a Finance Ministry programme run by insurance company Great Eastern.
“As an alternative, claims can also be filed directly at 18 locations, including at Selayang Hospital, that operate from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. All claims must be submitted together with the relevant documents and verified by doctors from government hospitals.
“Each claim will be processed in 14 working days with complete supporting documents. For successful claims, the money will be directly credited to the account registered under the Bantuan Sara Hidup Rakyat scheme,” said Johan.
