Dr Susan Lim billed a member of Brunei’s royal family S$26mil (including Goods and Services Tax) for seven months’ breast cancer treatment.

Dr Susan Lim billed a member of Brunei’s royal family S$26mil (including Goods and Services Tax) for seven months’ breast cancer treatment.


Jolted by RM60MIL Medical Bill…..

Saturday March 12, 2011

Jolted by RM60MIL medical bill

INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH BY SEAH CHIANG NEE

With the healthcare costs rising in recent years, Singapore’s elderly cringe each time a private practitioner charges an astronomical fee, wondering if it will set a new benchmark.

AN accumulated S$24.8mil (RM60mil) medical bill charged to a single patient has become a sensation in this city of rising millionaires.

It has rocked the senses of Singaporeans who are no strangers to tales of individual wealth and lavish spending in recent years – as well as big-money scandals.

The latest blew up when top transplant surgeon Dr Susan Lim billed a member of Brunei’s royal family S$26mil (including Goods and Services Tax) for seven months’ breast cancer treatment.

The family of Pangiran Anak Hajah Damit, the cousin of the Brunei Sultan and sister of the Queen, who succumbed to her illness in 2007, complained about the bill.

This brought the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) into the scene. It first held an informal hearing, then decided to hold a formal investigation into the issue of overcharging.

Dr Lim, who gained fame when she performed the first successful liver transplant in Asia, has applied to the High Court for a judicial review to stop this inquiry.

It was, of course, the S$24.8mil medical fee that numbed the minds of Singaporeans, who are themselves badly hit by rising healthcare costs.

The lawyer for the Medical Council said that the bills of other doctors who had helped Lim were significantly marked up.

She inflated a third party specialist’s bill of S$400 to S$211,000.

Another’s bill of S$500 was inflated to S$93,500, and a third doctor’s charge of S$3,000 was blown up to S$285,100.

These reports pose a special concern for Singaporeans, especially the elderly, whose healthcare is strained by bed shortage and price increases (in the past six years, the cost of Class C hospital wards, the cheapest, have risen by 30%).

Several years ago, a private medical group billed a Singapore family S$700,000 for treating an aged woman – then reduced it by half after she passed away.

Singaporeans are worried that every time a private specialist doctor charges an astronomical fee, it will set or re-set new benchmarks for ordinary citizens.

Overwhelmingly, Singaporeans consider Lim’s fee was excessive despite the patient’s considerable wealth and her demands to be treated in Brunei by no one but Dr Lim.

Each time the surgeon would have to leave behind her practice, sometimes for days, to travel to Brunei.

“This must be a world record. In some countries, S$24.8mil is enough to buy an entire hospital,” observed a housewife.

“That could pay for several houses in Canada!” a surfer exclaimed. With the money, Lim could also purchase one of several small companies listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange.

When SMC investigated the fee, Lim offered to discount it by half, and later reduced to just over S$3mil.

Opting to maintain ties, Lim then offered to entirely waive the fee if the Brunei government would give her “a letter of good standing”. This was turned down.

Not surprisingly, many specialist doctors backed her, arguing this was purely a commercial deal in which the government should not have interfered.

This mega-dollar scandal adds to a growing list of financial scandals including cheating in recent years.

“At most one can raise a question of ethics,” said a retired doctor.

The quick wealth and lavish spending of this 10th richest city in the world (based on per capita GDP) has become more evident. In some ways it is succumbing to a money culture.

Sales of Rolls Royce cars shot up by three times last year. A plate of yee sang (raw fish) and toppings can cost S$2,000 during the Lunar New Year.

One indirect result is believed to be runaway materialism.

In recent years, mega-million dollar scandals have risen from prominent civil servants, senior executives and even a top Buddhist monk and a Catholic priest.

The biggest scandal involved a former CEO of the National Kidney Foundation, T.T. Durai, who was jailed several years ago for corruption.

His trial revealed his lavish spending from funds collected from the public to help subsidise dialysis for needy kidney patients. He was paying himself S$600,000 a year, and he and his wife travelled first-class.

In 2004, Catholic priest Joachim Kang was jailed for four years for embezzling S$5.1mil from his church.

Then the authorities began investigating 18 individuals linked to the City Harvest Church, including its founding pastor Kong Hee and his wife Sun Ho for alleged misuse of funds.

A preacher from the New Creation Church, which boasts an income of S$55.4mil a year, was reported to be paying himself S$500,000 a year – until controversy spread and he stopped accepting the money.

The large Buddhist community, too, was rocked by a scandal when top monk Rev Ming Yi was sentenced to 10 months’ jail for misuse of funds.

The court delved into the lifestyle of the high-living monk, who owned three properties, loved luxurious cars and spent lavishly on branded goods like Montblanc and Louis Vuitton.

The saffron-robed reverend explained bluntly in court: “The world has changed… (It’s) no longer like what it was in the past.

“If people earn more, they will spend more. Many religious people, not just myself (sic), are very different now.”

Dr Lim is unlike these. She is not charged with any wrongdoing other than overcharging.

How pervasive is medical overcharging? I believe the practice is relatively confined to a few specialists who cater to the super rich.

The majority of doctors operate clinics to treat the average Singaporean family at relatively modest cost.