600 patients evaded medical treatment costs

JAKARTA (JP): At least 600 patients treated at the state Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta evaded paying for their medical treatment in the period between October and last month, it was revealed yesterday.

H. Soepardi Soedibyo, the hospital's deputy director for general and financial affairs, said the patients simply refused to pay their bills and left, thereby burdening the hospital with huge financial losses.

Soepardi said the hospital's losses averaged between Rp 2 billion (US$235,000) and Rp 3 billion annually, the majority of this being prescriptions and treatment of low-income patients.

Of the 600 patients, 166 fled from the hospital last month, up from 98 in January and 136 in December.

No statistics were revealed for the number of people who did not pay their bills in the corresponding period 12 months ago.

"We have never questioned the reasons. We only see an increase in their number from our monthly reports and presume that life is getting tougher now," he said.

Soepardi said that the hospital had repeatedly tried to collect patients' debts. "But after receiving no answers to three notification letters, we usually do not keep chasing them and we just let them go," he told reporters at his office.

"We just accept the fact and regard the situation as part of the hospital's function to provide social services," he said.

As a state hospital, Cipto Mangunkusumo, better known by its local acronym RSCM, offers lower treatment fees than other state or private hospitals in Jakarta.

Low-income patients get special dispensation allowing them to pay according to their financial ability, he said.

Even the poorest patients, such as those sent from the city's social services agency or with no other family to support them can receive medical treatment at the hospital.

Soepardi said the patients who evaded payment came from all classes, from the cheapest (third) class which costs Rp 7,500 a night to the VIP class which costs up to Rp 200,000 a night.

"Once there was a patient who refused to pay because the hospital bore the name 'Cipto Mangunkusumo' even though he was treated in one of the VIP rooms. The patient thought he deserved it," he said.

He said that in the 1996/1997 fiscal year the hospital suffered Rp 3.08 billion in losses, Rp 130 million more than in the previous fiscal year.

The total losses in the 1997/1998 fiscal year have not been calculated yet. (09)