The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State health insurance company PT Askes said Tuesday it was ready to continue partnership with the government under a new health insurance scheme proposed by the Health Ministry.
Company director I Gede Sumbawa said his team had confirmed with the ministry its commitment to the cooperation.
However, he said, the two parties needed to discuss the scheme further, as some items in the government's proposal did not fit with the company's responsibilities.
"The new scheme requires us to do the financial reporting, while in fact, that job is not part of our responsibility. We can't report something we don't do," he said after a discussion here.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said the company's concerns would not affect the new scheme.
"If they refuse to do the financial reporting, we can ask other institutions to do it," she said after delivering a speech at the same discussion.
The new scheme was proposed in response to the frequent overdue payments from PT Askes.
Siti also accused the company of lacking transparency when it came to hospital insurance claims.
Under the new scheme, the Finance Ministry will disburse funds to the appointed bank accounts of hospitals treating low income patients, instead of the money being channeled through Askes.
PT Askes' new responsibility will only include identifying patients entitled to the program, distributing insurance cards and preparing monitoring and financial reporting.
The director general of medical services at the ministry, Farid W. Husain, earlier said that to prevent possible insurance claim markups, the government would place 2,650 independent auditors in appointed hospitals.
"The verification team will be monitored by our internal auditor (the ministry's Inspectorate General and the Supervision of Finance and Development Agency), as well as by the Supreme Audit Agency," he said.
Despite massive promotional efforts for the new scheme, hospitals appointed for the program said they had received no formal notice about it.
Head of the Indonesian Regional Hospital Association, Hanna Permana, said none of its 438 members had been informed about the scheme.
"I have received many reports saying the new scheme has confused hospital managements," he told The Jakarta Post.
"They also complained the new scheme was already in place even though they hadn't received last year's overdue payment of hospital claims."
The government has allocated Rp 4.6 trillion (around US$497 million) to cover health insurance for 76.4 million low income people this year. (dia)
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