Access Medical group to give discounts to Chas patients out of its own pocket, after suspension from scheme
A clinic run by Access Medical group in Bedok South. The Ministry of Health said that the suspension of 10 clinics under the group comes after its audits uncovered "numerous non-compliant" claims made over an unspecified period.
SINGAPORE — A day after the authorities announced that 10 of its 13 clinics will be suspended from the Community Health Assist Scheme (Chas), Access Medical group said that it will continue to provide subsidies to eligible patients out of its own pocket.
Dr Lim Yong Chin, founder and managing director of Access Medical, on Tuesday (Oct 9), said that the “significant discounts” — which could be between 15 and 50 per cent — will be given for the entire duration of the clinics’ suspension to ensure continuity of care for affected patients.
He added that remedial actions have been taken to ensure claim compliance ever since the audits by the Ministry of Health (MOH) last year.
On Monday, citing “severe non-compliance” issues with regard to claims under Chas, the MOH announced that it was suspending 10 of Access Medical group’s clinics from the Government’s medical subsidy scheme. The case has also been reported to the police, with some doctors referred to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) for investigation.
Under the suspension, patients will not be able to claim subsidies under the scheme during their visits to the affected clinics from Oct 23.
Responding to TODAY’s queries on Tuesday, Dr Lim said his group runs 13 clinics, which saw 33,937 unique Chas patients last year. This is equivalent to about 5 per cent of the 650,000 patients nationwide who benefited from the Chas subsidies over the same period.
Dr Lim also said: “None of these patients or their visits were affected by the cited non-compliances.”
The exact amount of discounts to be given to eligible patients will be decided later. “We are doing this because we believe in the continuity of care for our patients and have a responsibility to them, not only to care for them medically, but also to keep out-of-pocket medical expenses low,” Dr Lim added.
He said that the giving of discounts by Access Medical to Chas patients is "not new".
"We very routinely ensure that Chas patients are charged lower than usual, so that after their government subisdy, their out-of-pocket expenses are low," said Dr Lim. On average, a Chas patient at the group’s clinics pay less than S$9 per visit out of his or her own pocket.
Since 2015, the group has given out discounts of this nature amounting to "at least S$1.13 million", he added.
MEASURES IN PLACE TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE
On the measures put in place to ensure compliance when making claims under Chas, Dr Lim said that the group has rectified “shortcomings” in its IT system, though he did not elaborate on this.
The company has also educated its employees, including doctors, “on the correct methods of doing claims” and “have instituted a claims checking process, where every claim is checked by two people apart from the person who enters the claim”, he added.
Dr Lim said: “So far, this is working well for the past 12 months, with very much improved compliance to Chas guidelines. However, the MOH has still decided to act with this suspension.”
He also told TODAY that the group is “not currently aware” which doctors have been referred to the SMC for investigation.
MORE ABOUT THE SUSPENSION
On Wednesday (Oct 10), MOH reiterated that it takes a serious view of errant practices in making Chas claims. The ministry added that its in-depth audit "revealed that (Access Medical) had over a period of time made numerous significant non-compliant Chas claims, such as claims for patient visits or chronic conditions with no relevant supporting documentation".
"Such severe non-compliances are a serious misuse of Government subsidies and unsubstantiated drawdown of patients’ annual Chas subsidy limits, for which we have suspended the clinics’ Chas participation," MOH said. "We are not able to comment further on the details of this case given the ongoing police investigations."
The outlets which have been suspended from the scheme are in Bedok South, Circuit Road, East Coast, Kim Keat, Marine Terrace, Toa Payoh, Whampoa, Jurong West, Redhill Close, and Bukit Batok.
TODAY previously reported that the ministry had also received public feedback on the clinics’ practices.
BACKGROUND ON CHAS
Chas, which was introduced in 2012 and administered by the Agency for Integrated Care, allows Singaporeans from lower- and middle-income households, as well as those from the Pioneer Generation, to receive subsidies for medical and dental care.
About 1.3 million Singaporeans can receive subsidised care at about 1,000 private general practitioners and 700 dental clinics islandwide through the scheme.
Last month, the MOH revealed that some 650,000 Singaporeans received about S$154 million in Chas subsidies last year, 10 times more than the amount disbursed when the scheme first took effect.
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