For patients paying out of pocket, private hospitals a slippery slope

For the countless people who are either uninsured or underinsured, a trip to the hospital can prove very costly. Private hospitals across the Kingdom are regularly accused of taking advantage of patients who pay out of pocket by charging them exorbitant prices for treatment. Al-Riyadh daily reports on the accusations made against the Kingdom’s private healthcare industry. One of the leading complaints against private hospitals is that they order a battery of unnecessary and expensive lab tests when they know they won’t have to deal with the usual scrutiny of insurance companies, which routinely negotiate discounted rates with hospitals. People paying out of pocket, on the other hand, are charged the full amount. According to Riyadh-resident Majed Bilal, the authorities should name and shame private hospitals that force patients to pay for unnecessary medical tests in the media and slap them with fines. Bilal recently took his maid to a private hospital where the doctor asked they repeat the same tests three times. “If I had taken her to a government hospital, they would only ask me to do the same tests once and that’s it. When I asked the doctor at the private hospital why he had to pay for the same tests three times, he said he wanted to make sure that the maid was free from any disease. I didn’t buy it,” he said. Mubarak Al-Dawsari, a local who used to work as an administrative employee at a private hospital, said the majority of private hospitals are only concerned with making a profit. “Each doctor is required to help the hospital profit from extensive laboratory tests. Some doctors make patients undergo medical tests even though they know that the tests are unnecessary. If a doctor does not follow the hospital’s rules, he will be given a first warning. If he insists on not ordering excessive testing, he will be dismissed,” Al-Dawsari claimed. Due to the long waiting periods at government hospitals, many people like Abdullah Sharahilee, are left with no option but to seek treatment at private hospitals. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Sharahilee hopes the Ministry of Health will open more hospitals in the future that can accommodate a larger number of patients. “The problem is that most private hospitals commit grave medical errors in diagnoses and treatment. I know a relative of mine who was diagnosed at a private hospital in Riyadh with stomach cancer. When he went to Germany for treatment, he was told he did not have cancer, but an infection,” he said. Dr. Sami Al-Abdulkareem, the head of the Medical Committee, Council of Saudi Chambers, said it is unfair to portray all private hospital doctors as dishonest. There are some that do order unnecessary tests but they are not by any means the majority. Dr. Adnan Al-Bar, family and community doctor, agreed that this practice is not common in all hospitals. “In some cases, the doctor does need to ask a patient to repeat certain lab tests just to be sure and rule out any possibility of serious medical condition or illness. The concerned authorities should intensify their inspection visits to private hospitals to ensure that this practice ends,” he said. “Educating patients about the importance of medical tests is important as well and people need to understand why some doctors require them to repeat the same medical test twice,” he added.