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Medical Aid Fund Only For Poor And Needy Patients - Liow

I wanna share this News Update from BERNAMA Website


Medical Aid Fund Only For Poor And Needy Patients - Liow

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 (Bernama) -- Assistance under the Medical Aid Fund is not extended to civil servants or government pensioners and their families because they are subject to treatment facilities under existing service circulars, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Monday.

He said the fund was established by the ministry for poor and needy patients and covered medicines and equipment, but not hospital bills, subsistence and transportation cost to and from the medical centres.

"The need for treatment with assistance from the fund will be determined by the medical officer or specialists at government hospitals and the sub-economic assessment will be made by the Medical Social Work Officer," he said when replying to a question from Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri).

Liow said the ministry always ensured that there was adequate supply of medicines and equipment at hospitals and would provide supplementary allocations if there was a shortage.

Assistance approved under the fund included supply of cardio-thoracic medical equipment such as implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) at a cost of between RM32,000 and RM39,000, installation of cochlear implant at a cost of RM75,000 per unit with therapy (RM7,000) and respiratory equipment such as home ventilator at a cost of RM80,000 depending on the type of equipment.

"Besides, costly medicines are also approved under the fund, such as beta interferon, Adalimumab (Humira) and mycophenolate mofetil (cellept)," he said.

Liow also said that the ministry provided a RM50 subsidy for each dialysis treatment of poor and needy patients at dialysis centres of non-governmental organisations if government hospitals could not accommodate the number of patients.

"The government has determined that with the subsidy, the dialysis centres cannot charge a patient more than RM60," he said.

-- BERNAMA


 

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