Holidaymakers are often a willing prey for foreign healthcare providers who know that most tourists are well insured. By doing unnecessary examinations, a hospital bill is increased, especially private clinics try to generate extra income.
This warning comes from Allianz Global Assistance. Allianz Global Assistance is the largest travel insurer in the world and provides medical assistance for more than 1,5 million Dutch people.
Dutch travelers are often also aware that private clinics conduct extensive research on patients and sometimes even more extensively than necessary. It is also possible that multiple visits or unnecessary examinations take place.
Allianz Global Assistance calls it remarkable that this year there were reports of travelers who were even admitted to a private clinic for a harmless ear infection. The private clinic gave the reason that the patient, due to the extensive treatment, heals faster and therefore has a greater chance of making his return journey. People with an ear infection are not allowed to fly.
The travel insurer recommends that you always first call the emergency center when you visit a doctor or are admitted to a hospital abroad.
This summer, the Allianz Global Assistance Emergency Center answered an average of 18.500 calls per week from holidaymakers in need.
These are indeed practices that occur regularly in Thailand, especially at the real tourist locations such as Koh Samui and Phuket. Many Europeans tend to always take everything blindly from a doctor, so if he says it is better to proceed to hospitalization, this advice is almost always followed. After all, the doctor will know. Contrary to what we are used to from the Netherlands, the doctors in private hospitals in Thailand have a rock-hard commercial interest.
There is only one way to ensure that doctors do not prescribe unnecessary and undesirable tests and treatments. Doctors should not be paid for the number of services they perform, but they should all simply receive a more or less fixed salary, called a 'fee' in the medical world. Hospitals are also not allowed to have a financial interest in the number of procedures. I have always argued for this, which earned me the honorary title of 'red doctor' in the Netherlands at the time. Surely nurses are not paid for every wash and a bricklayer for every brick?
In the Netherlands, this has now largely been achieved for general practitioners and specialists. Specialists and hospitals are paid per 'job': so much for everything related to a heart attack and so much for an appendix. This has meant that the Netherlands now has one of the best and one of the cheapest health systems in the world, which countries such as the United States look upon with envy. This also means that there is hardly any different treatment (perhaps in the provision of services) between different people in terms of financial capacity. Patients themselves and insurance doctors have very little influence on this.
Health care in Thailand would also improve significantly if the distinction between private and state health care is removed. Here too lies a noble task for Prime Minister and General Prayuth. He could order all military personnel to be sent to state hospitals. (Although. the military have their own hospitals, 61 in total).
I myself prefer a private hospital for the simple reason that as a customer/patient I am helped better and, above all, faster. For the sake of convenience, Tino omits the waiting lists in the Netherlands, as well as the fact that most innovations in the field of health really come from that despicable USA. Innovations are also being deployed there much more quickly and on a broader scale, which is also partly related to privatization and the financial incentive that this entails. But back to my own limited environment: if I have something in Thailand, I can still go today. Must try in the Netherlands.
In particular, it is up to the payer (the insurance company) to prevent unnecessary investigations (such as the list cited by Khun Peter, for example). And even then… at many private hospitals in Thailand, society is much cheaper than with similar treatment in the Netherlands. While the premiums for expat insurance are much, much higher.
Moderator: Your comment is off topic.
Tino,
You are right, but good health insurance is becoming increasingly stripped down and the premium continues to rise. But also in the Netherlands, hospitals, doctors, dentists, etc. are abused in a horrible way. I used to work in an ambulance, where the health insurance funds were already quite defrauded with ambulance transport by often charging flat rates while the patient was simply transported sitting down. If there were really proper checks, premiums would not have to increase. Why does a patient receive a lot, but not a copy of the bill to be able to check what is declared to the insurance. That would limit fraud considerably.
Dear Hans, your assumptions are incorrect. Allianz Global Assistance has mapped and qualified almost all hospitals in the world. A lot of time and money has been invested in this, so they will not publish this list because competitors can also benefit from it. The message is clear; Before you go to a hospital, you must first call the emergency center, which can then assess whether the hospital/private clinic is rated as good or bad. In addition, doctors and nurses work at the emergency center who can also advise you about possible examinations and treatments. Both the patient and the insurer have an interest in this.
The Dutch government has liberalized our healthcare system. This is to put a stop to the ever-increasing costs (ageing). For example, healthcare institutions and insurers have to compete to keep prices down: market forces. You can hardly blame the insurers for that, it is mainly a political and social choice.
There is no harm in warning people about this.
But it goes a long way to advise to call the insurer's emergency center when visiting a doctor.
Furthermore, in principle you cannot expect impartial advice from nurses and doctors employed by an insurer.
The next step is that you are obliged to call and the advice becomes binding.
Maybe you should read the policy conditions of your travel or health insurance? Your travel and health insurance only covers emergency care abroad. Hospitalization is even only allowed after consultation and permission from the emergency center. If you do not do so, an insurer is not obliged to pay the costs.
Moderator: please don't chat.
I think the insurers are referring to people who report to the medical service of a hotel with, for example, splashing poop or some other minor discomfort. This is often a nurse. He calls an ambulance and he then races with the blue lights on to a friendly private clinic. In short, incur costs and leave the patient and family in the dark. Something like this has been shown often enough on Radar and other consumer programs. In the Netherlands, insurers are increasingly working with private clinics to keep costs low.
It is true that hospitals abuse this, but this is also the fault of the insurers. Because they could enter into agreements with certain hospitals and thus prevent such things. But they are often certainly not interested. lie down longer if necessary. By taking too much unnecessary time to fax or email the warranty statement.
A "somewhat more extensive" treatment is not a privilege that foreigners only "enjoy" in Thailand.
About two and a half years ago, my Filipino wife (with a Dutch passport for 25 years) was discovered 2 tumors in her throat (on the thyroid gland). Advice in a private clinic: have it surgically removed, followed by hospitalization for 4 days! I called the insurance company. No permission was given there. So I'm furious. What do you have health insurance for?
A few days before the operation I received a call from her asking if she could come to the Netherlands for treatment. That was of course no problem and immediately made an appointment with a specialist via the GP.
Back in the Netherlands straight to the hospital with all the documents, including photos, from the Philippines under my arm. The specialist's response was short and sweet: “No ma'am. We don't operate that fast. First we try it in a different way.” She was given a drink of radioactive iodine. Such a drink goes directly to the thyroid gland and does its work there. However, a day and night admission to the hospital due to the radioactivity.
Subsequent examination showed that the tumors had disappeared. Follow-up treatment with medicines was only necessary for a short time. Her thyroid gland is still free of tumors.
Don't they know this way of treatment in the Philippines? Of course it is. The only question is: "What brings in the most money?".
Conclusion: NOT ONLY IN THAILAND DO FOREIGNERS ENJOY “PRIVETARY” TREATMENT IN PRIVATE CLINICS. THAT HAPPENED ELSEWHERE ALSO.
Lammert de Haan.
I travel all over the world and my experience is that in private clinics you are always overtreated. But Thailand is number 1 in terms of drug delivery. 70 pills for a sore throat is normal. I wish they would split the travel insurance, valuables insurance and medical separately. You can now go to the hospital and claim your laptop at the same time. If that were to be split, we would all be cheaper for the medical costs
I am a Crohn's patient and felt a perianal abscess developing at the end of July. I contacted the emergency center in the Netherlands and indicated which hospital in Krabi I wanted. They had no idea and the day later I had to spell the hospital name. Fortunately, I was eventually able to undergo major surgery in Koh Lipe. And instead of 7000 €, which it costs in the Netherlands, I lost 1400 tbt. In addition, I have never recovered so quickly. Not a super deluxe hospital, but a kind of general practitioner for the islanders.
Of course, there will be doctors and private clinics all over the world who take advantage of the patient's ignorance, but the lion's share of doctors will still put the patient's interests first. Unfortunately, I have had to visit various hospitals in Thailand quite frequently for various ailments. In my opinion, always excellent service for a much lower price than what it would have cost in the Netherlands. I have sometimes contacted my health insurer by telephone prior to a hospital visit. It was of no use at the time, they couldn't give me any advice at all. Not so long ago I felt unwell while checking in in Bangkok for my flight to Amsterdam. Transported by ambulance to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital via the airport medical clinic. I was alone and in these circumstances you can't expect me to contact an emergency center in the Netherlands first, can you? The next day, the hospital itself telephoned the ANWB emergency center and everything was neatly arranged, both medically and administratively. You should only be discharged from the hospital and fly after a number of days after receiving telephone permission from a doctor at the ANW center. Obviously, if you are able to do so, you should use common sense when consulting a doctor abroad and remain critical of proposed admissions and examinations. But to first consult an emergency center before every visit from either a foreign doctor or a hospital/clinic is going way too far for me. After all, you don't do that in the Netherlands. Wish everyone a healthy holiday/stay in Thailand!