1. From 1 March 2010, Singapore residents will be able to use their Medisave to help pay for their hospitalisation overseas under certain conditions.

2. Currently, they can only do so for emergency hospitalisation. At a dialogue with NTUC union leaders, there was a request to extend such a scheme to elective hospitalisation overseas, to give patients a wider choice, besides allowing them to take advantage of the lower cost of hospitalisation overseas.

3. MOH has studied the suggestion. Our concern is quality of care and potential abuses, both of which will not be in the patients’ interest. We have decided to try it out.

4. For the extension, the following additional conditions will apply, besides the existing conditions applicable to treatment in Singapore:

a. Medisave usage will only be limited to hospitalisations and day surgeries, i.e. it cannot be used for outpatient treatment;

b. The overseas hospital must have an approved working arrangement with a Medisave-accredited institution/referral centre in Singapore;

c. The patient must be referred through a Medisave-accredited institution/referral centre in Singapore;

d. The local centre must provide pre-admission clinical assessment and financial counselling to the interested patient;

e. The local centre will be accountable for patient satisfaction and the clinical outcome.

5. The scheme will start off with two providers: Health Management International (HMI) and Parkway Holdings Pte Ltd.

a. HMI has set up its local Medisave-accredited referral centre at its Balestier Clinic and Health Screening Centre. It will work with its two overseas subsidiaries: Regency Specialist Hospital in Johor Bahru and Makhota
Medical Centre in Malacca.

b. Parkway Holdings has set up a Medisave-accredited referral centre at East Shore Hospital. It will partner 9 hospitals under the Pantai group in different states of Malaysia, as well as the Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

6. Patients interested in making use of this scheme may approach the two healthcare providers directly.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH