IHH Healthcare supports govt's efforts to rein in medical inflation

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 (Bernama) -- IHH Healthcare Bhd has expressed support for the government's efforts to rein in medical inflation.

But, it believes that it is also crucial to enact policies that holistically address the issue by considering the healthcare financing structure and its various stakeholders, and not focus strictly on drug price controls per se. 

“IHH remains fully aligned with the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia’s (APHM) call and efforts to continue collaborative engagement with the authorities and broader stakeholders to ensure an effective solution for Malaysia,” it said in a statement today.

The statement came about as a clarification to a media report titled, “IHH supportive of drug price control mechanism", yesterday.

IHH clarified that its managing director and chief executive officer Dr Tan See Leng’s quote from the Annual General Meeting press conference, was taken out of context, and the meaning was not conveyed in its entirety.

IHH’s stand, it said, was reflected in a letter by APHM president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh on May 7 where he referred to the statement by the Health Minister that his ministry would work with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to regulate prices of medicines.

“Since 2017, the APHM has been in discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Division of Ministry of Health on the proposed move.

“The APHM is concerned about the minister’s statement that price ceilings would be imposed at two points, namely the wholesale and retail levels, that is, at the clinics, pharmacies and hospitals. The APHM puts on record that it is not in support of any proposed move that seeks to control the prices of medicines in private hospitals.

“We fully support the push for greater transparency and efforts to rein in medical inflation. However, this has to be thought through carefully to avoid unintended policy outcome that would hurt Malaysia,” Dr Kuldip had said.

He also said a piecemeal approach without considering the entire healthcare financing structure and without the involvement and cooperation of the payors would ultimately collapse the Malaysian private healthcare sector.

--BERNAMA