ArticleBizTime: Public Money, Private Care (3)
Prof. Kevin A. Schulamn, Professor of medicine and Business Administration, Duke University
Foreign investments have been looking for opportunities. And Chinese government has been in advace for quite sometimes. Again the question is how do we attract them, how do we make a reasonable proposition for them. Investors can work in their ways to the system by putting money into hospitals and management companies, by thinking about equipment and delivery, in setting different varieties of different business models.
Q2: How can doctor supply be ensured?
47%-- Lifting single employer rule
38%-- Enhancing mobility of doctors between public and private sectors
15%-- Higher salaries
Dr. Jeffrey Staples, Parkway Health
I think the biggest challenge for Chinese national physicians working for international health care facilities is that licensing. Currently, Chinese physicians can only get licensed in one facility. That means it’s very difficult for a Chinese physician working with a government hospital to also work for a private facility. In the United States, a physician would be given a license for a state or province. And they’re allowed to work for any facilities in that state….it’s quite common practice
Michael Lim, Cook Medical Trading Co., LTD.
There’s a system in Singapore that allows seniors doctors in the private sector to go back to the government sector to provide consultation on a weekly basis. The reason why they do this is that they want those very skilled and highly educated doctors to pass on experience to those junior doctors. I think we should not limit out vision that once a doctor moves out of the government health care system into a private one, they’re doomed in a government hospital. It’s not necessary. We should encourage this kind of flow.
Q3: What makes an effective pricing model?
46%-- Low cost to all
44%-- Different prices for rich and poor
10%-- Others
Michael Lim, Cook Medical Trading Co., LTD.
Hospitals would have grade 1 services or grade 2, grade 3. These grades really refer to the level of specialists assigned to look after the patients. Take grade 3 for example, it would be the least expensive. Patients involved in this grade might be retired people. They received the most subsidy from the government. But they might need to wait a comparatively longer time due to a longer queue. For grade 2, patients could pay 40 percent of the bill while the government pay 60 percent. For grade 1, patients could pay 70 percent of the bill while the government pays 30 percent.
Dr. Hans Troedsoon, WHO
The bottom line of a health care system is whatever solution you choose, you secure you don't exclude anybody from the system. No matter if you include all the people in the heath care insurance like Nordic countries, or like the US that you have private or mix.
Q4: How to reduce the cost of health care?
39%-- Introduce commercial health insurance
35%-- Simplify distribution
26%-- Raise public insurance quota ceiling
Prof. Kevin A. Schulamn, Duke University
Making sure it's affordable to individuals ends up being in insurance, either voluntary insurance scheme, or some type of supplementary insurance scheme. It's going to evolve making sure people can afford the healthcare services.
Michael Lim, Cook Medical Trading Co., LTD.
The distribution channel has been too costly. Manufacturers passing to importers to distributors to a sub dealer into a hospital system and to patients, medical price is thus raised. What we are trying to do is to lift this inefficient distribution channel. How do we do that? We are trying to remove all the additional layout distribution that do not have added value to our hospitals and patients. Moving forward, we’ll have a hybrid system of distribution.
The medical equipment provider told us. By removing all those unnecessary steps in distribution, his costs would be reduced by 25-30 percent, and that savings would be extended to patients. But in public hospitals, approval to purchase a desktop would take longer than six months.. Many believe by shouldering costs on their own, charity hospitals might be able to act quicker to reduce the cost on distribution.
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