The Health Bureau today welcomed the release of a Consumer Council report that gives recommendations aimed at improving price transparency in the private healthcare sector.

Highlighting that the Government plans to consult the sector this year with a view to devising legislation to enhance private healthcare price transparency, the bureau said the council’s report will be taken into account.

Hong Kong has a dual-track healthcare system that encompasses both public and private provision. Public healthcare offers a safety net, while private healthcare gives citizens a choice of providers.

The bureau said that enhancing the value and efficiency of private healthcare while maintaining its quality will be crucial to keeping Hong Kong at the forefront of global healthcare standards and establishing the city as an international health and medical innovation hub.

It highlighted, however, that an imbalance in resource deployment between the public and private healthcare sectors has arisen. Specifically, the public healthcare system provides 90% of inpatient and specialist medical care while employing roughly only half of the city’s medical manpower.

The bureau added that greater private healthcare price transparency will allow citizens to be better informed with regard to pricing when making medical decisions. Raising confidence in private healthcare services may in turn have the result of alleviating demand for public healthcare services.

In 2016, the Government – together with the Private Hospitals Association – rolled out a Pilot Programme for Enhancing Price Transparency for Private Hospitals. This involved implementing three measures: publicising fee schedules for major chargeable items; providing budget estimates for 30 common treatments/procedures; and publicising historical billing statistics for 30 common treatments/procedures.

Improvements have been made to the pilot programme since its introduction. The Government has also set up a dedicated website to publish statistics from all private hospitals, including annual discharge numbers for specified treatments/procedures, average lengths of stay, and actual billing data for the 50th and 90th percentiles for each specified treatment/procedure.

The bureau said it will take the operational experience garnered from the pilot programme as it prepares to launch its consultation on private healthcare price transparency legislation.