MMA president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said the government had set a ceiling price for various Covid-19 tests, but an order under the Emergency Ordinance and subsequent statements from the health ministry had only caused more confusion on the matter.
In a statement, he said the prime minister had signed an order addressed to “licence holders” of 24 listed laboratories.
He clarified that at all private laboratories currently operated with a business licence as the Pathology Laboratory Act 2007 had yet to be enforced.
“What this would mean is that, as of today, no laboratory would be in possession of an operating licence issued under this Act. Neither would there have been a call for them to apply for this.
“So what kind of licence is the order signed by the prime minister referring to?”
Noting that the order specifically applied to the 24 laboratories in the list, Subramaniam questioned if this meant other new laboratories were not bound by this order.
Subramaniam added that the Covid-19 screening process involved two components — collecting samples and laboratory testing.
He urged the health ministry to clarify that the ceiling price only applied to lab testing.
“The public should not be misled to believe that these rates are reflective of the maximum price they would be paying for the whole procedure when they visit a private healthcare facility,” he said, adding that there were significant costs involved in both components.
According to Subramaniam, private healthcare facilities had to factor in the cost of consultation, test kit prices, operation overheads and personal protective equipment.
Laboratories also incurred various costs to process specimens, he added.
“Conducting this procedure at off-site locations and additional logistical arrangements for collection of samples from remote areas are examples of some of these miscellaneous costs. Urgent samples would also incur a premium.”
The government had set the ceiling price for polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests at RM150, RTK-Antigen tests at RM60 and RTK-Antibody tests at RM50 in Peninsular Malaysia.
The ceiling price for RT-PCR tests in Sabah and Sarawak is RM200, RTK-Antigen tests RM80 and RTK-Antibody tests RM70.
Subramaniam said the rates were too low to compensate for the total costs and efforts in collecting samples and laboratory testing.
“Any attempt to set a lower ceiling price just to make it affordable to the public would have disastrous consequences.
“The last thing we need is for any party to be forced to compromise on safety or quality just to rationalise the cost of the procedure to be within a predetermined cap.”
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