Replies to LegCo questions

LEGCO QUESTION NO.19 (Written Reply)

Asked by:	Hon Howard YOUNG	Date of meeting :	30 June 1999
		Replied by :		Secretary for Health and Welfare

 

Question :

 

It was reported that an injured tourist who was sent to a public hospital for treatment was asked to pay a deposit on medical and hospital expenses, which amounted to $19,000. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows if the Hospital Authority has any plans to accept payment by credit cards, especially when it involves a large amount of money and tourists; if so, of the details of such plans, if not, the reasons for that?

 

Reply :

 

Madam President,

At present, the public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) accept various forms of payment, including cash, Electronic Payment Service (EPS), Payment by Phone Service (PPS) and local currency cheques. The hospitals also accept payment by tourists in travellers’ cheques and foreign currency cheques.

To facilitate payment by patients, particularly by tourists, HA has explored the feasibility of accepting credit card payment in earlier years. In providing the services, credit card companies require to charge commission cost. We consider that this payment method should be implemented on a user-pay principle i.e. individual patient to pay for the commission cost charged by the credit card company. Under the existing fee system, hospitals may only charge patients at the gazetted rates and not the additional commission cost. Even if we change our fee policy to allow hospitals charging patients for the commission cost, since different credit card companies charge at different rates, there will be difficulties in implementing it. We have also suggested credit card companies charging patients the commission cost direct, but this is not agreed by the companies. HA has negotiated with the credit card companies again in recent years, but their policy regarding the charging of commission cost remains unchanged. HA will continue to review the present forms of payment to provide the most convenience for the public and tourists using HA services.