Community Complaints Ministry of Health, Health Service and Covid-19 Referral Hospitals in Several Regions to the Indonesian Ombudsman Over Maladministration of Charging Covid-19 Treatment Costs to Patients
Jakarta, 09 December 2021 – Five victims of Covid-19 treatment costs, together with the Community Coalition for Access to Health Justice, filed a complaint directly with the Indonesian Ombudsman. Complaints were made regarding alleged maladministration carried out by several Covid-19 referral hospitals which charged patients up to hundreds of millions of rupiah in costs for Covid-19 care and treatment. Several regional Health Services and the Indonesian Ministry of Health were also reported…
PRESS RELEASE
Community Complaints Ministry of Health, Health Service and Covid-19 Referral Hospitals in Several Regions to the Indonesian Ombudsman Over Maladministration of Charging Covid-19 Treatment Costs to Patients
Community Coalition for Equity in Health Access
Jakarta, 09 December 2021 – Five victims of Covid-19 treatment costs, together with the Community Coalition for Access to Health Justice, complained directly to the Indonesian Ombudsman. Complaints were made regarding alleged maladministration carried out by several Covid-19 referral hospitals which charged patients up to hundreds of millions of rupiah in costs for Covid-19 care and treatment. The Health Services of several regions and the Indonesian Ministry of Health were also reported for negligence and not carrying out their supervisory responsibilities according to the law.
Based on Minister of Health Regulation no. 59 of 2016, Law no. 6 of 2018 concerning Health Quarantine and Law no. 4 of 1984 concerning Outbreak Management, all costs for the care and treatment of Covid-19 patients must be borne by the state from the time they are declared suspected until they recover. Furthermore, the financing criteria are regulated in technical instructions issued by the Ministry of Health, where the Health Service of each region is obliged to carry out supervision.
The complainants are the families of Covid-19 patients or direct patients who were treated at referral hospitals on average during early to mid 2021. The five of them are eligible to have their costs covered by the state based on Minister of Health Decree No. 4344 of 2021. However, they are forced to bear the costs of care and treatment themselves which are very expensive, starting from 150 million and some even reach 750 million rupiah.
Some of the reasons for these charges range from health facilities limiting the coverage period to only 14 days, patients being forced to go home even though they have not yet recovered and needing treatment, requests for down payments for treatment, reasons for the hospital not collaborating with BPJS to being forced to make a statement of coverage independently. Regarding this problem, the Health Services of several cities which received complaints from victims, instead of giving a warning, actually affirmed the violation in their response. Apart from that, there are also problems with the Ministry of Health's handling of restrictions on coverage for the Covid-19 drug Gammaraas and the ceiling on reimbursement for treatment costs by the Ministry of Health. These patterns violate the law and are acts of maladministration in the Covid-19 health service as a crucial public service during the health emergency.
The five victims who came from Jakarta, Surabaya and Bali are just some of the dozens of complaints the coalition received during 2021 regarding similar problems. Since January 2021, LaporCovid-19 received at least 34 complaints from residents who complained about the costs of care and treatment for Covid-19 patients which were not fully borne by the state. However, only five reporters filed complaints with the Central Ombudsman and the Greater Jakarta Ombudsman.
Through this complaint, the Coalition and the victims hope that the Ombudsman can provide binding recommendations for the Reported Parties to restore the victims' rights as well as make structural improvements so that similar violations are not repeated.
The victims and coalition were received directly by Teguh P. Nugroho as Chair of the Greater Jakarta Representative Ombudsman and also Dedy, the representative for complaints from the Indonesian Ombudsman. Regarding the report to the Greater Jakarta Ombudsman, Teguh P. Nugroho said that the Greater Jakarta Ombudsman would examine the report. Furthermore, the consolidated report is in the form of suggestions and corrective actions for policy stakeholders, namely the Hospital, the relevant Health Service (Dinkes), and the Ministry of Health. Formal and material reports will be received, then we will carry out an examination of the reported parties and issue a consolidated report, namely a report in the form of suggestions and corrective actions, said Teguh P. Nugroho in a closed meeting.
Jakarta, 9 December 2021
Best regards,
COMMUNITY COALITION FOR EQUITABLE HEALTH ACCESS
Contact Person:
Amanda Tan – ReportCovid-19 (085866044058)
Charlie Albajili – LBH Jakarta (087819959487)
