Private clinics seen to overcharge for laboratory tests
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Private medical clinics charge many times more for laboratory tests compared with municipal health care.
The price of a “shopping basket” of the most common laboratory tests is nearly five times the cost of those tests in public health care.
For instance, a CRP test, which is used to detect infections, costs a private patient more than EUR 24, while a public health clinic will pay just three euros to a municipal laboratory for the same test.
The figures come out in a fresh report by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, which compares the prices of laboratory studies in the various health care districts in November last year. The price information came from figures from the Social Insurance Institution (KELA) on medical reimbursements in 2009.
The latest study also included the costs of taking samples on the municipal side. Their exclusion in previous studies have made direct comparisons more difficult.
According to Ari Miettinen, the director of the laboratory centre of the Pirkanmaa hospital District, who served as an expert in drawing up the report, the reasons for the differences can be explained by the fact that pricing on the public side is kept in check by law, which is not the case at the private level.
The law stipulates that fees paid in public health care must closely follow the development of costs. According to Miettinen, private clinics make a considerable part of their profits through the high prices of laboratory work.
The additional cost is paid by the private patients themselves, as well as employers who offer employees a separate health plan, insurance companies, and KELA.
Patients often are unaware of the prices of laboratory costs, and consequently, few will question the fees that are charged.
“A private clinic is chosen already by the time that a doctor says that studies are needed”, Miettinen says.
He also says that the big differences in price are not fully explained by differences in production costs, although the public sector does have the advantage of being able to deduct VAT on the goods and services that it needs.
The study is criticised by Matti Bergendahl, CEO of Mehiläinen, a private provider of health care services.
“It is good to make measurements, but the point of view must not be biased.”
While he is not very familiar with the study by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, he sees the study as an apples-and-oranges comparison.
Bergendahl says that figures on the municipal side often do not include all factors that affect the price, such as the higher cost of tests conducted after regular working hours. He also feels that the services on offer are different.
“We must ask how quickly and how nearby the results of a test on a sample become available. With us, the results often come on the same day, preferably during the same consultation.”
Bergendahl emphasises that private clinics compete with each other. He denies suggestions that laboratory tests are used to extract profits in order to make the cost of a visit to a private doctor appear as attractive as possible.
Private clinics do set the prices of laboratory tests, but the price of a visit to a doctor at a private clinic is set by the doctors themselves.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 11.6.2010 - TODAY |
 Private clinics seen to overcharge for laboratory tests |
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