Gov't to factor in Consumer Council report in healthcare price transparency

The Council made five key recommendations to improve price transparency.

The Health Bureau will take into account the Consumer Council recommendations to the private healthcare sector in efforts to enhance private healthcare price transparency.

The bureau said that enhancing the value of private healthcare whilst maintaining its quality will be crucial to keeping Hong Kong at the forefront of global healthcare standards.

However, the bureau noted an imbalance in resource deployment between the public and private healthcare sectors has risen.

Specifically, the public healthcare system provides 90% of inpatient and specialist medical care while employing roughly only half of the city’s medical manpower.

The bureau added that greater private healthcare price transparency will allow citizens to be better informed with regard to pricing when making medical decisions.

In this light, the Council conducted a study ... 

Amongst the recommendations of the Council is to improve consumer's accessibility to price information with a search tool. 

The Council said that price information should be publicised, complemented by initiatives from the government to develop guidelines for private hospitals and day procedure centres regarding the presentation format of price lists to make it more user-friendly.

The Council also proposed that private hospitals and day procedure centres should design and introduce medical packages for suitable treatments/procedures as a tool to maintain price
consistency between the budget estimates and final bills.

The Council also suggested that the provision of a clear and written budget estimate should be required. 

Moreover, they pushed for the enhancement of the current regulatory framework on price provision and complaint handling mechanism on price matters as well as the strengthening of consumer education through multiple channels.