KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 – ProtectHealth Corporation has launched a new mobile application for the Madani Medical Scheme (SPM), instead of using the government’s existing MySejahtera health app.
The company fully owned by the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday that the app was available on Android; the app is not currently available in Apple’s App Store.
“This application has functions like checking for eligibility, searching for clinics, and checking one’s balance [of benefit utilised]. It is also equipped with a one-time password (OTP) feature to verify the patient’s identity when seeking treatment at private clinics registered with the Madani Medical Scheme,” ProtectHealth tweeted.
According to Google Play, the developer for the Madani Medical Scheme app is ProtectHealth. Data that may be collected by the app is one’s user ID and phone number.
MySejahtera currently has a feature allowing users to check their eligibility for SPM, a scheme that provides low-income earners fully-subsidised treatment at private general practitioner (GP) panel clinics, subject to certain benefit limits.
It is unclear why the MOH decided to have a new app created for SPM, especially since the ministry had plans to turn MySejahtera – which was initially developed as a Covid-19 app before expanding with other health functions – into a “super app” for the population.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa told Parliament last February that the MOH has finalised the direct procurement of MySejahtera and made payment to the private company operating the mobile application in line with a “special approval letter” from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in September 2022.
She also claimed that the MOH has implemented measures to ensure that the app’s data, its intellectual property rights, source codes, and modules in the MySejahtera app belong to the government, following controversy last year about the development of the app for the government without a contract with its developer, Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly known as KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd).
