Clarifications on informal survey on TPAs
It has been brought to SMA's attention that a survey on third-party administrators (TPAs) has been circulating via informal channels among doctors as of 17 June 2020. The survey, titled "Survey on TPAs Part 1" is not conducted or sanctioned by SMA. Official communication from SMA will be accompanied by our SMA logo and marked clearly as originating from SMA.
SMA's position on managed care companies and TPAs
Many SMA Members would be aware that SMA has been calling for managed care companies or TPAs to be regulated by the Government, to ensure better standards and improve transparency.
Between 2016 and 2017, SMA wrote to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) to highlight the issue of percentage fees being charged. Subsequently, the joint efforts of the SMA, Academy of Medicine, Singapore and College of Family Physicians Singapore culminated in the inclusion of guidelines on service fees paid to managed care companies, TPAs, insurance entities and patient referral services in the SMC Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines (2016 edition, guideline H3(7)). The three professional bodies also jointly issued two advisories.
Our correspondences with SMC and relevant advisories can be found at http://bit.ly/SMAstatements under "Managed Care - admin fees".
SMA will continue to monitor the situation and push for managed care companies to be regulated by the Government.
Nonetheless, we encourage doctors who are interested to engage us through proper channels by emailing to sma@sma.org.sg. If you are not already an SMA Member, we encourage you to sign up so that SMA can better represent the medical profession.
Clarifications on subscription relief payment for MPS Members
The Medical Protection Society (MPS), in recognition of the impact COVID-19 is having on healthcare and the significant drop in income that members in private practice have experienced, has announced in April 2020 that they will offer eligible members the equivalent of two months' free membership.
On 4 June 2020, some MPS members received:
- An email from MPS with the subject "COVID-19: Access your subscription relief payment" with a personal registration code and instructions on the subscription relief payment; and
- A second email from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) with the subject "Your agreed payment from The Medical Protection Society Limited is waiting to be processed" inviting them to submit their bank account details to receive the subscription relief payment.
If you have received the above two emails, please be assured that they are legitimate and not phishing emails. Kindly follow the instructions detailed in the emails to enable HSBC to process your subscription relief payment.
If you have received the HSBC email, but NOT the MPS email containing your personal registration code and instructions, please check your email inbox and spam/ junk folders.
It has come to our attention that some members had difficulty accessing their subscription relief payment through the HSBC portal using the registration code MPS provided. We would like to reassure you that the code is correct but some of the characters may not be clear and distinct due to the font used. MPS has resent the same code using a different font, which should make the registration code easier to read.
If you have any questions about the above or require assistance, please write to singaporesubscriptionrelief@ medicalprotection.org.