Upgrading to a higher ward class will incur retroactive charges for treatments in the more subsidised ward.
SINGAPORE - Hospital patients who stay in a lower-class ward and then upgrade to a higher-class one will have to pay more for their stay in the heavily subsidised ward.
Many of these patients are not of lower income and could have chosen the higher-class ward from the outset, he said. That is why if a patient upgrades, the level of subsidies will be adjusted retroactively, he added. The Ministry of Health recently addressed the issue of retroactive charging when a patient switches between a higher and lower-class ward into say it was unfair that his elderly mother, who was admitted to hospital as a Class C patient, will be retroactively charged more for previous treatments received in the same admission if she upgrades to a single-occupancy room and becomes a Class A1 patient.
In its reply in April, the Ministry of Health said the current policy is meant to discourage patients from selecting lower-class wards to enjoy higher subsidies for more costly treatments and then upgrading to higher-class wards once these treatments have been completed.
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