In view of doctors’ dilemma, extend deadline on TPA fees

The consequence of not fully complying with the Singapore Medical Council’s (SMC’s) guideline disallowing fee splitting is that medical professionals may find themselves facing disciplinary hearings (Singapore doctors on the horns of a dilemma; June 28).

Without an agreement between the SMC and third-party administrators (TPAs) on fee structures, medical professionals may temporarily suspend their arrangements with their TPAs as they adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

Their patients may therefore be unable to continue seeing their doctors after tomorrow’s deadline.

There arise some questions on what has led to the current predicament. First, the SMC has claimed that fee splitting would cause patients’ costs to rise and/or compromise their treatment.

To substantiate its case, however, the SMC should have provided more details of how such practices have led to said inflation or compromised care prior to the guideline.

Next, TPAs should have already consulted their legal departments to ensure their new charging formats fully complied with the SMC’s guidelines before presenting it to doctors.

When these new formats were presented to the SMC, however, it was reported that they were not in compliance, hence the question of whether some TPAs had done their due diligence prior to their recommendations.

To ensure that the medical care provided to TPAs’ clients is not disrupted, the SMC should extend its deadline for doctors to comply with the guidelines. More importantly, there should be close consultations between the SMC and the TPAs on what fee structure is permissible.