KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 24 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) is planning to add new procedures to the 13th fee schedule for specialists in private hospitals, said Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The review of Schedule 13 of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services (Private Hospitals and Other Private Healthcare Facilities) Regulation under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (Act 586) was informed by the health minister in a written Dewan Negara reply to Senator Prof Dr Mohamed Haniffa Abdullah last September 9.
“This will enable medical practitioners to charge reasonable fees for new procedures, especially those that use the latest health technologies,” said Dzulkefly.
He added that the MOH was currently refining a proposal to review private general practitioner (GP) fees in private clinics under Schedule 7 of Act 586 and “continuing stakeholder engagement sessions” after the proposal was tabled to the Cabinet.
The health minister did not specify the new rate proposed to the Cabinet that was presumably rejected and had forced MOH to go back to stakeholder engagements.
Dzulkefly also said initiatives by the MOH’s Private Medical Practice Control Section (CKAPS) that began in 2023, namely ease of doing business and business process reengineering, shortens the approval process for setting up private health care facilities.
This is expected to help ease the implementation of the sales and service tax (SST) on private hospitals and medical clinics that came into effect last July 1.
An SST rate of 6 per cent applies to private health care facilities with total taxable revenue exceeding RM1.5 million in the passt 12 months.
