The Ministry Of Health Still Has Arrears For COVID-19 Treatment Claims In Private Hospitals

JAKARTA - Director General of Health Services of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Abdul Kadir admitted that his party had not paid part of the claim for COVID-19 treatment at private hospitals.

Abdul said, there were arrears in the payment of COVID-19 patient care in December because the ministry had closed its books by the end of 2020.

"At the end of December there are indeed some that we cannot pay because it is the end of the year, at which the Ministry of Finance has closed the books," said Abdul in the KemkominfoTV Youtube live broadcast, Wednesday, January 27.

In addition, claims disbursement in January cannot be done because the 2021 budget has not been disbursed by the Ministry of Finance.

"Not this January, we have not made a payment because the budget we are proposing is still being processed at the Ministry of Finance or has not been disbursed," said Abdul.

Another factor, said Abdul, was that there were still a number of document problems in the claim verification process from hospitals managed by BPJS Kesehatan.

"So far, it has been running smoothly, unless the verification team from BPJS Kesehatan turns out that there are cases of claims filed that do not match the documents sent and the rules we hold. Therefore, sometimes there are delays in payments," he explained.

To date, Abdul said that the Ministry of Health had paid IDR 14.5 trillion for COVID-19 treatment claims since the beginning of the pandemic until now. These payments were made to 1,683 hospitals.

For payment of claims for COVID-19 treatment, Abdul promised that the Ministry of Health would immediately process the disbursement. "To the main director of the hospital, we will immediately make a payment after the funds are disbursed from the Ministry of Finance," he said.

For information, the Indonesian Private Hospital Association (ARSSI) revealed that the Ministry of Health has not paid the bill for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, reaching tens of billions of rupiah.

As a result of claims that the payment for COVID-19 patients has not decreased, a number of private hospitals also find it difficult to cover the treatment for isolation patients and the COVID-19 ICU.