EXCLUSIVE- Prices of services under the new healthcare system to be 20% less than market prices: Private sector hospitals and clinics that have signed on to provide services under the new healthcare system could be offering their services at a 20% discount from the average market price under the system’s new pricing scheme that has been drawn up by a government committee, Assistant Finance Minister Mai Farid tells Enterprise. Farid added that would necessarily apply to prices of “specialized” treatments and operations, though she did not elaborate on which procedures would be exempt from providing the discount. She acknowledged the possibility that some of these medical procedures may not even see a discount.

Background: Her statements come as the Finance Ministry announced the broad strokes of how private sector healthcare providers can join the new system set up by the Universal Healthcare Act. The government will contract out healthcare services to the private sector hospitals, who must abide by a pricing scheme that is being set up by the government committee.

A bid to attract private service providers to the new system: Reports from last year had indicated that the government was considering a discount of 40% on prices offered by private sector hospitals that sign up for the healthcare system. Farid tells us that these have been cut at the behest of private sector operators who were invited to sit on the committee that is drawing up the prices. One third of the members of the committee setting up the pricing for the system were representatives of the private sector.