Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ10: Write-off cases of the Hospital Authority
Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 13):
Question:
It has been reported that write-offs by the Hospital Authority (HA) due to patients not paying hospital or consultation fees in the past three years have been serious, with the amount exceeding fifty million dollars. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective amounts of medical fees written off by HA in each of the past three financial years, together with details of the types of non-payment, categories of the defaulters (such as Hong Kong permanent residents, people from the Mainland and overseas visitors) and the amounts of non-payment for each year;
(b) if HA has an established procedure for recovering payments in default; if it has, of the details of the procedure and the percentage of the amounts successfully recovered; and
(c) the amount of administration fees involved in executing such procedure, and such amount expressed as a percentage of the amount successfully recovered?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The amounts of outstanding fees written off by the Hospital Authority (HA) in the past three years broken down by service and patient type, i.e. Eligible Persons (EP) and Non-Eligible Persons (NEP), are shown in Annex 1. The HA does not have a further breakdown of the NEP category into Mainland visitors and overseas visitors.
(b) When a patient defaults on the payment of his medical fees, the hospital will follow-up on the final bill with the patient concerned through telephone calls, mail reminders and a final notice. The hospital will also contact the patient's next-of-kin for settlement of the outstanding fees. Failing the above, the HA Head Office will institute legal action, where appropriate, to recover the outstanding fees, taking into account relevant factors such as the amount in arrears and the chance of successful recovery. In cases where the outstanding fees are owed by a deceased patient, the HA will file its claims with the Probate Office.
To tackle the problem of bad debts, the HA has in fact taken a number of measures to reduce the incidence of default payment in the first place. For example, in respect of patients who are NEPs, the HA would require the payment of a deposit upon admission at a public hospital. At present, the amount of the deposit is fixed at $19,800. In addition, it is an established practice at public hospitals to issue interim bills at least once every seven days for patients who are NEPs or 14 days for EPs. Patients are reminded by hospital staff from time to time to settle the interim bills in a timely manner.
(c) The costs of recovery include the cost of time spent by HA staff in the recovery process, postage for the mail reminders and final notices, and the out-of-pocket expenses involved in the institution of legal action such as the costs of courier delivery, filing fees to the Small Claims Tribunal and the subsequent bailiff execution fees. The HA does not routinely collate information on the cost of time spent by HA staff in the recovery process and the postage for the mail reminders and final notices. The out-of-pocket expenses involved in the institution of legal action, together with the amount of written-off fees recovered through legal action by the HA over the past three years, are shown in Annex 2.
Ends/Wednesday, October 13, 2004
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Legislative Council Q10
Annex 1
|
|
2001/02 |
2002/03 |
2003/04 |
||||||
|
EP |
NEP |
Total |
EP |
NEP |
Total |
EP |
NEP |
Total |
|
|
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
|
|
Inpatient Services |
3.6 |
10.1 |
13.7 |
4.0 |
13.7 |
17.7 |
6.8 |
16.8 |
23.6 |
|
Outpatient / Community Services |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.3 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
0.5 |
|
Accident & Emergency Services |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
- |
- |
- |
0.5 |
1.8 |
2.3 |
|
Total : |
3.7 |
10.1 |
13.8 |
4.3 |
13.7 |
18.0 |
7.8 |
18.6 |
26.4 |
Annex 2
|
|
2001/02 |
2002/03 |
2003/04 |
|
$Mn |
$Mn |
$Mn |
|
|
A) Amount claimed through legal action, taking into account factors in part (b) of the reply above |
6.9 |
6.8 |
10.1
|
|
B) Amount recovered |
0.7 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
|
C) % recovered (B �� A) |
9.7% |
11.1% |
7.6% |
|
D) Out-of-pocket expenses in legal action |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
|
E) Costs as % of amount recovered (D �� B) |
37.7% |
42.7% |
34.2% |