The government plans to introduce subsidiary legislation requiring licensed private healthcare institutions to provide price information to the public and licensed private hospitals to give patients service fee estimates for "specified treatments and procedures," with measures for private hospitals expected to take effect as early as August next year.
The Health Bureau submitted a document to the Legislative Council on Thursday, planning to table the regulations by the end of this year along with a code of practice, aiming to implement the measures in phases from the second half of next year.
On price information, the regulations will require all licensed private healthcare institutions to provide bilingual price lists in a specified format, listing all chargeable items, service descriptions and prices by specified categories such as wards, operating theatres or procedure rooms, and drugs or consumables. Prices should generally be expressed as fixed amounts or ranges, such as "HK$300 per session" or "HK$300 to HK$500."
Institutions planning to revise price lists must publish the revised version at least seven days before the changes take effect and report to the Department of Health. For items or services not on the price list that are reasonable and necessary, institutions may still provide them but must give the patient or their representative a fixed price or price range in printed or electronic form and obtain acknowledgement before supply.
If it is not practicable to do so before supply, such as in an emergency, the institution must provide the fixed price within 48 hours after supply and obtain acknowledgement.
The regulations will empower the Director of Health to require institutions to submit relevant information, including price lists, price information, acknowledgements, fee estimate forms and explanations for failing to provide estimates or exceeding them, to monitor compliance.
The Director may also require institutions to take necessary compliance measures, such as revising and publishing price lists or providing price information and obtaining acknowledgement.
