KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The Rakan KKM service, set to launch in select government hospitals, will be run by Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd, a company owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc.).
According to the company profile of Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd (registration number: 201401003671) on the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) website accessed by CodeBlue yesterday, the company’s nature of business is to “formulate and develop strategic plans for enabling the provision of private health care services within the Malaysian Ministry of Health’s public health care system.”
This directly contradicts Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s previous denials, as recent as last Monday, about the “privatisation” of the public health care system through Rakan KKM.
Rakan KKM, a paid service, seeks to provide elective procedures priced above cost in public hospitals, with a planned launch by the third quarter of this year at Cyberjaya Hospital, Putrajaya Hospital, Sultan Idris Shah Serdang Hospital, and the National Cancer Institute (IKN).
Rakan KKM’s company profile states that it aims to implement and operationalise strategic plans through collaboration and partnership with the government, government agencies, and health care stakeholders and other related companies and organisations.
Its business also includes undertaking “any other business or activity which may seem to the company as capable of being carried out in connection with commercial and business objectives and is in the best interest of the company”.
Unlike Rakan KKM, its predecessor, the full-paying patient (FPP) scheme, was not operated by a company. CodeBlue reported last October that the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) FPP service has been closed in at least three hospitals since the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Rakan KKM’s company profile, the company’s share capital is RM25,000, with MOF Inc. being the sole shareholder. Rakan KKM also has about RM6.8 million in current assets and RM6.2 million in current liabilities, as well as a profit of nearly RM204,000.
The company’s last old name was Platcom Ventures Sdn Bhd, with the incorporation date on February 4, 2014. The company’s name changed to Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd on January 13, 2025.
Rakan KKM received RM25 million in Budget 2025. The company’s investors are from government-linked investment companies (GLICs), such as the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF).
Rakan KKM CEO Dr Mohamed Ali Abu Bakar is listed as company manager, while Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman, clinical advisor to the health minister and the MOH, is listed among the company’s five directors.
The other four Rakan KKM directors are Ahmad Zulqarnain Che On, Azrul Izham Hamzah, Shahrazat Ahmad, and Azrai Yusni Kamarul Zaman. Koh Ee Huei is listed as an alternate director. Ahmad Zulqarnain is EPF CEO, while the rest are Finance Ministry officials.
Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd’s business address is in Cyberjaya.
CodeBlue has requested comments from the health minister’s office and the MOH.
Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd Is Hiring
Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd posted a dozen job advertisements on recruitment portal Jobstreet 13 days ago. These include positions for medical director (no expected salary listed), head of operations (RM15,000 to RM20,000 per month), head of strategy and partnership (RM17,000 to RM20,000 per month), head of admin and finance (RM17,000 to RM20,000 per month), HR manager (RM8,000 to RM10,000 per month), regional managers (RM7,500 to RM9,000 per month), and assistant communications manager (RM6,000 to RM7,500 per month).
Medical-related job advertisements by Rakan KKM include head of nursing (RM10,000 to RM15,000 per month) and pharmacist (RM6,500 to RM8,000 per month).
Rakan KKM has yet to post ads on JobStreet for specialist doctors, medical officers, specialist nurses, staff nurses, or other health care professional positions.
The location for some of the Rakan KKM jobs – like head of nursing, head of operations, head of admin and finance, head of strategy and partnership, HR manager, regional managers, and assistant communications manager – are in Kuala Lumpur City Centre, while others are in Cyberjaya or Kuala Lumpur.
Like Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd, the National Heart Institute (IJN) is also owned by MOF Inc. IJN operates as a private hospital. A major difference between IJN and Rakan KKM is that the former has its own hospital building, whereas the latter plans to utilise existing buildings and facilities of government hospitals.
IJN was first situated at Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s (HKL) old Blood Bank office when it was established in 1984, before the cardiac centre moved to its current location at Jalan Tun Razak in 1992.
Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd Seeks CKAPS Licensing
Another clue to the privatisation of the public health care system via Rakan KKM lies in the job description for the company’s head of operations, as listed on Jobstreet.
This person is expected to assist the medical director “in the licence application from CKAPS [Private Medical Practice Control Section under the MOH’s medical practice division], in all regulatory aspects, ensuring adherence to national and later international health care regulations, standards and accreditation requirements.”
The job description for a Rakan KKM hospital licence executive similarly states the person’s responsibility for ensuring that a “health care facility complies with all relevant licensing regulations and standards.”
Under the law, only health care facilities run by the MOH are considered to be “government” health care facilities and, as such, are exempt from the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (Act 586). All other facilities, including university hospitals and IJN, are (legally) private health care facilities subject to Act 586.
Hence, obtaining CKAPS licensing will legally classify Rakan KKM as a private health care service.
(This potentially poses a conflict of interest since MOH’s new private health care service is seeking regulatory approval from the ministry itself.)
As Rakan KKM plans to launch in government hospitals like Cyberjaya Hospital as a start, it’s unclear how CKAPS licensing will work, i.e. whether only a certain floor or wards, exclusive to private patients, will be required to comply with regulations, unlike the rest of the hospital that does not need to be up to the standards set under Act 586.
But facilities like an operating theatre may be shared between public and private patients. Nursing ratios are also regulated under Act 586; private hospitals are prohibited from opening up beds unless there are sufficient nurses to staff these beds.
Hence, despite claims by MOH officials that the Rakan KKM service will only operate after office hours, CKAPS licensing may require that private wards be fully staffed throughout the day.
HR Statutory Compliance, Insurance Coverage, Drug Procurement
The job description in Rakan KKM’s recruitment ads, like billing executives, indicate the company’s aim to get its private health care services covered by insurance.
The HR manager’s job description requires the person to “ensure statutory compliance and implement industry well-being initiatives.” The job of the head of operations includes collaborating with HR to “ensure clinical and non-clinical staffing levels are appropriate, especially with the regulation and applicable laws.”
Meanwhile, the head of admin and finance’s job includes “ensuring compliance with labour laws.”
It’s unclear how Rakan KKM can achieve statutory compliance in human resources if the service uses the same health care staff working in the public sector, who are supposedly expected to attend to private patients at night or on weekends, on top of their 45-hour work week in government service.
It’s also unclear if public health care workers in Rakan KKM will be formally employed by the company, which would require them to quit the civil service, or if they will be paid on a fee-for-service basis like locum work.
Rakan KKM’s pharmacist job description includes acting as the “wholesale licence holder for the company”, indicating the company’s plans to procure its own supply of medicines.
It’s unclear if Rakan KKM intends to purchase drugs from pharmaceutical companies or suppliers that is likely to be very expensive since the volume will be very small, compared to drug procurement by the MOH or even university hospitals.
It’s also unclear if Rakan KKM will lease facilities and equipment from the government or purchase other medical supplies independent of the MOH.
Targets: ‘Significant PNL Growth’, Corporate Strategy, Business Models
The job descriptions for Rakan KKM’s head of admin and finance, as well as head of strategy and partnership, reveal the corporate nature of MOH’s new private health care service.
Among their responsibilities are to develop business, corporate, and financial strategies; ensure “significant PNL (profit and loss) growth”; develop business models; determine the viability of business propositions, investments, and projects; develop a pricing strategy; and develop an understanding of customers, competitors, partners, business models, market sizing, and industry trends.
It’s unclear how Rakan KKM can achieve its business objectives if the private health care service only runs after office hours to avoid disrupting regular services in the MOH.
In an interview with CodeBlue last September, a middle class couple living in Kuala Lumpur said Rakan KKM should operate regular hours like any hospital and that its paying patients shouldn’t be treated as “secondary patients based on spare capacities when available or by doctors who are tired as that’s their overtime.”
Dzulkefly told a press conference Monday that patients could pay for “faster” access to elective procedures offered by Rakan KKM in public hospitals, instead of waiting six to seven months in the regular queue. Emergency cases, however, will still be managed equally without discriminating against patients based on their ability to pay.
His remarks triggered outrage among the general public and medical doctors. Many criticised the two-tier health care system created by Rakan KKM that has been likened to an “express lane” in a theme park.
“This is privatisation!” a person posted on X.
