KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) has proposed insurance coverage of Covid-19 tests for all patients beyond emergency and semi-urgency cases for the next three months.
APHM thanked Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) for their recent commitment of RM300 reimbursement to policyholders of medical insurance for emergency and semi-emergencies for coronavirus tests, but expressed concern that this would only benefit a small number of patients.
“This is a great move forward for the insurance industry in helping patients to reduce the financial impact of patients, which is however restricted only (until) end of June or before the depletion of funds,” said APHM president Dr Kuljit Singh in a statement.
He added that such a privilege should not be confined to only emergency situations, but also to elective cases that may lead to emergencies if not treated appropriately.
“Our proposal is to have Covid-19 test as inclusive of all claims regardless of the condition of the patient in the next three months.
“This will definitely help to prevent infection to health care workers and also to protect the patients. The financial savings to the patients will be significant,” explained Dr Kuljit.
APHM said it understood the difficult situation faced by the insurance industry during the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of low returns of investments, and noted that private patients’ admission is very low, which means that fewer payable claims are reported in general.
“We appeal to the insurance industry to further help patients by widening the Covid-19 testing for a three-month period and for all admissions,” said Dr Kuljit.
