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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Leung Ka-lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 21):
Question:
In reply to the question I raised at the meeting of this Council on April 22, 2009, the Government indicated that the total costs of services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) for work-related injuries in 2007-2008 were $216 million, but the opportunity cost for HA's doctors serving as members of Employees' Compensation Assessment Boards was not shown. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the opportunity cost for HA's doctors to serve as members of the above boards in each of the past five years;
(b) whether it has plans to have the above two types of costs of services borne by employees' compensation insurance which employers take out for employees; and
(c) as Pneumoconiosis and Mesothelioma (Compensation) Ordinance (Cap. 360) and Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) stipulate that regarding the medical expenses for employees who are injured in accidents arising out of their employment or suffering from occupational diseases, the ceiling of payments which employers have to make is $280 per day, and very often this amount is not enough to cover the expenses incurred for treating those employees (e.g. the cost of the main medication which is used for treating mesothelioma and has to be paid by the patients themselves is $10,000 per injection), whether the Government has plans to raise the ceiling so that those employees will turn to private healthcare institutions for treatment and rehabilitation services, thus alleviating the burden on public healthcare services?
Reply:
President,
(a) The arrangement to assign its doctors to serve as members of the Employees' Compensation Assessment Boards (the Boards) has been in place in public hospitals before Hospital Authority (HA) was established. HA has all along followed this arrangement since its establishment. However, as mentioned in our reply on April 22, 2009, HA does not have the complete statistics on the treatment for work-related injuries, nor the breakdown on the time and service costs involved for its doctors serving as members of the Boards. In addition, HA has no mechanism to charge the Labour Department any service fee for assigning its doctors to participate in the work of the Boards.
(b) At present, HA provides a series of public healthcare services for eligible persons, including treatment for work-related injuries, and charges patients the prescribed fee. The services provided by HA to the eligible persons are heavily subsidised by the Government and therefore the fee charged does not reflect the costs of the service. Under the existing mechanism, HA has not imposed a specific fee for treatment of work-related injuries and is not empowered to charge any fee from a third party (including any insurance company which provides coverage for payment of patient's medical expenses). We have no plan to change the existing arrangement.
(c) The maximum amounts of reimbursement for medical expenses provided for employees who have sustained occupational diseases or injuries at work under the Employees' Compensation Ordinance and the Pneumoconiosis and Mesothelioma Compensation Ordinance are set by reference to the fees and charges for public healthcare services. As a basic principle, the amounts cover the costs for the employees in receiving specialist out-patient service or accident and emergency service and hospitalisation at public hospitals or clinics. Under the existing mechanism, the Administration reviews and revises the reimbursable ceilings for medical expenses in accordance with changes in the standard fees and charges of public hospitals and clinics. Employees who have sustained occupational diseases and work injuries are eligible for reimbursement of medical expenses under the ordinances, regardless of whether they receive treatments at medical institutions in the public or private sector.
Ends/Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:26
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