When The Ministry Of Health Asks Private Hospitals To Increase Bed Number In The Midst Of COVID-19 Treatment Costs Arrears

Hospital room (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin issued a circular to all regions to increase the occupancy of isolation beds and special ICUs for COVID-19 patients.

Director General of Health Services of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Abdul Kadir said that the request to upgrade the availability of beds was made because there was an increase in cases of up to 25 percent from before the year-end holiday.

"The Minister of Health has issued a circular. To anticipate a high increase in the number of patients, the hospital must also have more beds," said Abdul on Wednesday, January 27.

Through this circular, the Ministry of Health asked regions with red zones or those with high risk to increase the number of isolation beds by at least 40 percent and ICUs at least 20 percent.

Then, for areas in the yellow zone, the city is advised to convert beds by 30 percent and isolation rooms by 20 percent of the existing capacity.

"For the green zone, this is actually a precaution if there is a possibility of a surge or their position changes to the yellow zone, they are expected to convert 25 percent isolation beds and 15 percent ICU," he explained.

The Ministry of Health, currently, is also providing opportunities and allowing all hospitals in Indonesia, including private hospitals to provide services for COVID-19 patients. Provided, they follow the management procedure as a referral hospital and have sufficient facilities and means.

However, in the midst of demand for increased bed occupancy, it turns out that there are still unpaid claims for the cost of treating COVID-19 patients.

The Association of Indonesian Private Hospitals (ARSSI) revealed that the Ministry of Health has not paid 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.

Responding to this, Abdul Kadir confirmed 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 book period 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 time the Ministry of Finance has closed the books," said Abdul.

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

"In 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, there were still a number of document problems in the claim verification process from hospitals managed by Health Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan).

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