All Puskesmas set to have same tariff

JAKARTA: Following complaints that Public Health Centers (Puskesmas) in Jakarta have different tariffs for their health services, the city administration is planning ensure charges are consistent.

City Health Agency Head A Chalik Masulili said on Thursday that they would convene a meeting with all the centers to discuss their public services and tariffs.

"Then I'll issue a (city health agency) decree ruling on the same tariff," he said, adding that he had not yet determined the charges.

According to Bylaw No. 3, 1999, the tariffs, which are subsidized, should be Rp 2,000 (about 30 US cents) each time a person visits. The service includes the doctors' checkup and medicine.

But Syamsidar Siregar, a councillor of Jakarta City Council Commission E, said her commission had found that 50 percent of the centers in Jakarta charged their patients between Rp 3,000 and Rp 5,000.

The National Mandate Party councillor said that some officials claimed they had to charge patients more because their services were of a better quality than those set in the regulations. She said they had a laboratory facility, which was not owned by others.

Masulili stated that the new charge will cover all health services.--JP