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Medical providers can charge patients whatever they want- Barry
Therefore, medical providers in the Virgin Islands (VI) can “charge [patients] whatever they want,” according to the Deputy Director of the BVI Social Security Board with special responsibilities for the NHI implementation, Mr Roy E. Barry.
The Deputy Director was at the time testifying before the 2017 Standing Finance Committee as it deliberated the 2017 Budget. Mr Barry advised the Committee that at the inception of the NHI programme, it was recommended by the Government that providers not be allowed to charge more than 5% above the fee schedule set by the NHI which they labeled “balance billing”.
Medical providers don’t want price control
This proposal was rejected by the medical providers, according to Mr Barry, and now they can charge patients whatever they choose to with no laws in place in the Territory to prevent them from doing otherwise.
When asked by the former Opposition Leader Hon Julian Fraser RA, (R3) for Mr Barry to clarify his statement to the Standing Finance Committee (SFC), the Deputy Director stated, “that there was no legislation to mandate the prices, but an attempt was made to control the market. However, once that failed they had no authority to implement anything further.”
To this, Hon Fraser asked if they allowed patients to go overseas, if that could work “without any legislation?” Mr Barry stated in his response that “it had been difficult to try and force the providers when they were not in agreement with what they were trying to achieve, especially when they had a shortage in some of the services.”
Profit up after NHI
It was also stated that even without the requested maximum of 5% government presented to the medical providers in which they can charge above the proposed rate, medical providers can still make a decent profit without the maximum 5% by just relying on the rate sheet provided by the NHI programme.
It was on November 7, 2016 that our newsroom published a list from the House of Assembly in an answer to a question on how much monies were made by providers for the first eight months of 2016.
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34 Responses to “Medical providers can charge patients whatever they want- Barry”
The truth is; they do not want to do anything
Shameful! rubbish! Incompetence! This is too outrageous to even be on Ripley's Believe It or Not. This is an awful and horrible dream that I cant wait to be awaken from. But ah sh*t! It is not a dream. It is an ongoing nightmare. This must be a planned action for medical professional to rape the NHI and the consumer,for no government could think this was good legislation that was in the programme or public's best interest.
The legislation should have been as easy as ABC or crab foot and hangers. Government set in place a fair and reasonable fee structure and if medical professionals want to participate he/she must agree to charge the established fees. Furthermore, we like to copy what happens up north so we should have modeled the NHI after Medicare in the US. Fees are established and if a doctor wants to participate in the programme he/she must agree to accept the fees. Who is going to get reprimanded for this glaring and unconscionable oversight? No one. The gross negligence is only being inflicted upon the long suffering consumer. Has anyone heard about the newest game in town-----Government is the Cash Cow. And we wonder why government is broke. Gross neglect and extreme incompetence.