Monday, September 15, 2008 CCMC seeks fee increases By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SO it can improve services and help more patients, the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) will ask City Hall to allow it to implement a minimal increase in hospital fees and charges, and to bill services that are being offered for free.
Dr. Myrna Go, acting CCMC chief, said the additional income they can get from the rate adjustments will help them cope with the increasing cost of hospital supplies and medicines, and allow them to defray cost of services given to indigents.
Considering the very meager resources and budget from City Hall, Dr. Rodolfo Bigornia, the mayor’s consultant for CCMC, agreed with the need to increase fees.
Go said they first proposed to the City Council to impose charges on emergency room (ER) and out-patient department (OPD) services as early as 2003.
That time, they proposed to charge P50 for every consultation made at the OPD, where the service is currently being given for free. Consultation fees in private clinics and hospitals now range between P300 and P500.
They also proposed to increase the P200 fee for minor surgeries performed at the OPD.
“Our proposal to increase fees and, if possible, to charge for services that are given for free was made in 2003 yet. It’s still pending at City Hall. We will follow this up but we will make a new proposal because the proposed increase was based on the costs in 2003, mas taas na man karon (the rates have gone higher),” Go told Sun.Star Cebu.
She said the new rates will be based on the supplies, medicines and equipment that will be used for the surgery or service, and perhaps only a fraction of the total cost.
“I will ask for a study on the costs and we will revise the proposal and submit a new one to the City Council,” Go said.
Creation
Any increase in the hospital fees and creation of new offices has to be covered by an ordinance approved by the Council.
Go said that even for the ER services, majority of the patients do not pay because they cannot spare money for it.
CCMC has been getting flak from Mayor Tomas Osmeña for many years now due to what he calls the “culture of inefficiency” among its employees. This is why he is seriously considering the offer of private companies to buy the facility.
During the City Council session last Wednesday, a councilor raised the possibility of increasing the hospital fees to help CCMC operate more efficiently with the meager budget it gets from City Hall. In 2008, the budget was only P139 million.
Around 60 percent of the budget or some P98 million goes to the salaries and benefits of personnel.
Cost
CCMC reported that in 2007, cash receipts for hospital services amounted to only P44.7 million while the free services cost the hospital P50.2 million.
The total cost of services delivered in 2007 reached P147.9 million, including the P21.9 million free services at the OPD, which attends to up to 500 patients a day.
“So in terms of the services delivered, dili gyud losing ang hospital. Nakahatag gud mi ug free services worth P50 million despite our limited budget. Supposedly, free services are given only to the indigents but naa man gyud patients na dili gyud maka afford. So even if they are billed for the service, mahu’g na libre lang gihapon,” a CCMC doctor, who requested anonymity, said.
With this scenario, Dr. Bigornia said it is about time that CCMC collected fees for consultations.
This will also help them improve their facilities and equipment, especially since they have not been receiving capital outlay from City Hall for the past two years.
Capital
“What the CCMC has been getting from the City Government is only for maintenance and operating expenses and salaries of personnel. As far is capital outlay for equipment is concerned, we just have to wait for donations,” Bigornia said.
But with more collections, the hospital can buy more equipment, expand medical units and improve services for the public.
“Of course we should collect fees. Even Chong Hua Hospital, which is a non-profit and non-stock hospital like CCMC, collects consultation and ER fees. There is always an overhead for every service. That’s why, there should always be money to plough back so we can fund services for the indigents,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
