Tarnishing the image of Singapore medical tourism
One doctor may have single handedly damaged the reputation of the entire Singapore medical tourism industry with a rather imprudent case of padding the medical bill.
The doctor is a liver transplant surgeon named Susan Lim, the patient a member of the Brunei royal family, and the bill was for over US$20 million. It was a case of liver cancer for which Lim provided treatment over a period of seven months back in 2007. That treatment at times incurred fees of over S$200,000 per day. Lim defends the charges, saying that the patient agreed to the fees and that the services provided were extraordinary, including setting up medical facilities in a hotel and providing around the clock care.
Was the doctor simply giving into whatever outrageous demands the patient made, or did she really inflate the bill as much as possible? The top hospitals are already quite luxurious so there is no need to set up medical facilities in a hotel, and that seems questionable anyway from a purely medical point of view. Around the clock care is also available in the hospitals – the private hospitals are quite accommodating if you are willing to spend a little more. In hindsight it seems like a pretty obvious mistake, especially since the patient died and the people left with the bill consider it outrageous.
Another piece of information adds to the dark cloud. Lim was previously implicated in another complaint about overcharging from a UAE patient. Singapore’s medical commission launched an investigation of Lim, details of which don’t seem to be available to the public. In the mean time, Lim has made a “good faith gesture” by offering to cut the bill in half, so maybe this bad publicity will just fade away.
The case spurred some discussion of setting up some standards for billing rates in Singapore. However, so far the authorities have rejected that idea. There seems to be a little lack of transparency in charging practices, somewhat in contrast to Thailand’s medical tourism destinations where details of prices are routinely provided in advance.