Hospitals reject Manulife policies

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hospitals have decided to reject PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI) health insurance policies following the bankruptcy ruling on the company, leaving some 200,000 policyholders in uncertainty.

Hospitals fear that the ongoing fiasco faced by the local unit of Canada's giant insurer Manulife Financial Corp. could render the company unable to pay medical bills.

The head of admissions at St. Carolus private hospital in Jakarta said that as of Monday the hospital had decided not to admit patients who relied on Manulife health insurance policies.

"We have turned down patients who have produced a Manulife insurance card. We are asking them to pay with their own money," the official, Aurelia, told The Jakarta Post.

Another private hospital, RS Pondok Indah in South Jakarta, also adopted the same approach last week.

Duty nurse Irin told the Post that as of last week, the hospital had decided to cancel its business cooperation with Manulife.

"The hospital issued a written announcement a week ago to reject the Manulife health insurance card for an indefinite period. Thus, policyholders of the insurance firm have to pay their own bills, just like any other patient who did not have an insurance policy," said Irin.

AJMI was declared bankrupt by the Commercial Court on June 13, after a receiver of the now-defunct PT Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera, the former local partner of Manulife via AJMI, filed a bankruptcy petition over unpaid dividends in 1999.

The bankruptcy ruling became controversial as AJMI is a solvent company, as declared by the Ministry of Finance, and the shareholders did not authorize any dividend payment during that period.

This paper previously reported that the ruling would put policyholders in a quandary as the company has had to shut down its offices until a final verdict is issued by the Supreme Court. AJMI has made an appeal to the Supreme Court, which it will determine within six weeks. But AJMI's top management said at the time that there was no reason for policyholders to worry.

AJMI's director of claims Yuan Kurniawan confirmed that several hospitals had rejected Manulife health insurance policies.

"We have appealed to all hospitals in Jakarta not to reject our insurance card nor to abandon our policyholders. We have assured them that we'll cover their bills fully. However, the hospitals have made their own decisions, and we regret the step they've taken," Yuan told the Post.

AJMI spokesman Edwin Piorie said that of the company's 400,000 policyholders, some 200,000 had access to its health insurance product.

As of Friday, AJMI decided to halt operations for the time being. The company's 400,000 policyholders are unable to claim payment and its 4000 staff remain at home.

AJMI conducts its business through a network of 72 branches in 33 cities throughout Indonesia.

Meanwhile, AJMI asked the Commercial Court on Monday to replace the court-appointed receiver, Kalisutan, on grounds of bias. The court will decide on Wednesday.

The company said Kalisutan was not a registered member of the receivers association and he had previously filed an affidavit in Hong Kong on behalf of a company linked to Dharmala.

Visiting Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific David Kilgour also called for the dismissal of the AJMI receiver because his apparent aim was to "ruin the company".

Kilgour raised the prospect that AJMI would shut down unless the ongoing fiasco were resolved quickly.

Canada has previously urged the Indonesian government to intervene in the dispute, but the latter declined to do so. The case seems to have turned into a diplomatic row between the two governments.

Manulife has been in a legal battle with Dharmala's founder, the Gondokusumo family, since the firm acquired the latter's 40 percent stake in AJMI at a government court.

A Virgin Islands-registered company, Roman Gold -- alleged by Manulife to be a front for the Gondokusumo family, which had controlled Dharmala -- contested the purchase, claiming to have bought the same shares two weeks earlier.

In a related development, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Monday that he had started a bribery investigation into the three judges who issued the Manulife bankruptcy ruling.

The ruling was reached on a two-to-one vote, with presiding judge Hasan Basri opposed to the bankruptcy decision.