KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — The proposed Rakan KKM programme involving private wings in government hospitals is still stuck, over six months after initially expecting to see its first patient last December.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii in a written Dewan Rakyat reply last Thursday that implementation of Rakan KKM was still at the “finalisation” stage because the Ministry of Health (MOH) was awaiting responses and approvals from multiple agencies.
“Therefore, implementation has moved from the original schedule,” said Dzulkefly.
He added that Cyberjaya Hospital has been identified as a pilot hospital involving orthopaedic and internal medicine services, with a few other hospitals under MOH’s consideration for the next phase.
“The main challenge in implementation is the requirement for compliance with the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (Act 586), including aspects of licensing, governance, management of government assets, and coordinating agreement documents between the related parties.”
According to the health minister, a company has been created to implement Rakan KKM – Rakan KKM Sdn Bhd (RKSB) that is owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc.). The MOH has also prepared three draft agreements: main agreement, operational agreement, and a leasing agreement between the government and RKSB.
Discussions were conducted with the Public-Private Partnership Unit (Ukas), Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH), and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).
“This initiative is aimed at retaining MOH staff, including participating specialists, with additional incentives, besides generating extra revenue for MOH to improve MOH’s health services,” said Dzulkefly.
He omitted specifying the next target launch date for Rakan KKM, simply telling Parliament that the MOH was “committed to ensuring that implementation of the initiative will be transparent, complies with all legal requirements, and won’t affect patient access to current health care services.”
Rakan KKM is also part of the Reset framework by the Joint Ministerial Committee on Private Healthcare Costs (JBMKKS), with the government intending the “premium economy” programme as an expansion of cost-effective options in private health care.
The continued delay in launching Rakan KKM – which first received funding in Budget 2025 that was tabled nearly two years ago in October 2024 – comes even as the government is planning to pilot MediAsas, its base medical and health insurance/takaful (MHIT) product, in the Klang Valley by the end of this month.
Rakan KKM was meant to pilot the diagnosis-related groups (DRG) reimbursement system – which will be used for MediAsas – but now, the government simply says that selected private hospitals will participate in MediAsas, without naming them.
Health financing expert Prof Emeritus Dr Syed Mohamed Aljunid Syed Junid pulled his support from MediAsas yesterday, comparing Malaysia’s use of private health insurance as a health financing solution to the “wrecked” situation in the United States.
