600 patients evaded medical treatment costs
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)