KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — Two doctors’ groups have rejected the government’s decision to maintain private general practitioner (GP) consultation fees at a minimum RM10 and to increase the ceiling to RM80.
At a town hall in Penang yesterday – which was organised by the Penang Private Medical Practitioners’ Society (PMPS) and the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners’ Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM) – the consensus from GPs was to revise consultation fees to a floor rate of RM40 and a ceiling of RM125.
Barring this, GPs called for synchronisation of Schedule 7 of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (Act 586) with Schedule 13 that sets out hospital-based GP fees at RM30 to RM125.
“Though the announcement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Doctors’ Day was supposed to be a happy and momentous occasion, GPs were let down with the range of quantum announced, which was RM10 to RM80,” PMPS president Dr Kirubakaran Malapan said in a statement.
“This is disappointing and fails to reflect the true value of GPs in delivering frontline care. Currently about 60 per cent of GP clinics are seeing third-party administrator (TPA)-related cases. Having a low floor rate of RM10 is unfortunately unsustainable.”
Anwar, who is also finance minister, announced during the tabling of Budget 2026 in Parliament last Friday, which coincided with Doctors’ Day, that the government has decided to raise the GP fee ceiling from RM35 to RM80, but to maintain the RM10 floor.
In an immediate response, the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) slammed the RM10 floor, pointing out that six in 10 patients seen by GPs come from TPAs and companies that pay doctors below RM35.
MMA demanded that the minimum GP consultation fee be raised to RM50.
Anwar made the announcement about GP ceiling fee revision in his Budget speech, even though private sector doctor fees have nothing to do with federal funding. The health minister has the power to revise Schedule 7, without needing parliamentary approval.
However, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told reporters recently that the government decided to keep the RM10 minimum consultation fee to avoid burdening uninsured patients.
He did not mention the availability of public health clinics under the Ministry of Health (MOH), the biggest health care provider in the country, where outpatient fees are charged at RM1.
PMPS further demanded regulation of TPAs and managed care organisations (MCOs), accusing the middlemen in health care of interfering with doctors’ clinical decisions and imposing arbitrary payment caps.
“These practices compromise patient care and professional independence.”
The Penang doctors’ group also expressed concern that increasing foreign ownership in health care entities — including pharmacies, laboratories, and even primary care chains — poses a serious threat to the sovereignty of Malaysia’s health care system and the independence of local practitioners.
In a separate statement, FPMPAM president Dr G. Shanmuganathan similarly opposed the government’s decision to maintain an RM10 GP consultation fee floor, calling for Schedule 7 fees to be synchronised with Schedule 13.
The doctors’ group also urged the government to prohibit TPAs and MCOs from pegging reimbursement rates for health care providers to the statutory minimum.
FPMPAM plans to take the following steps:
- Call for deregulation of all consultation fees.
- Advise GPs to unbundle charges in line with transparent costing.
- Advise medical practitioners to continue rejecting any TPA instructions or guarantee letters (GLs) that restrict or compromise patient care.
- Publish, based on verifiable evidence, a list of TPAs with contracts that contravene Act 586 or the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) Code of Professional Conduct.
- Launch a national campaign for change.
“There will be political consequences for the government’s continued prioritisation of TPA interests,” Dr Shanmuganathan warned.
“If this persists, those consequences will be inevitable: When patients see family clinics closing, waiting times rising, and treatment choices shrinking while corporate intermediaries profit, they will hold the government accountable..
“A government that loses the trust of doctors and patients alike will also lose the moral legitimacy to speak for health care reform.”
