Hospitals file lawsuit against SSO
The Association of Private Hospitals yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Social Security Office (SSO), demanding it subsidise the cost of infant care, in addition to the flat rate of Bt377 per childbirth paid to each SSO beneficiary.
Representing the association, Dr Prapha Wongphaet said the SSO failed to pay separate fees for infant care service as it had promised in an official statement. She said the SSO needs to pay another Bt40 per head to hospitals joining the scheme in case SSO beneficiaries give birth at other hospitals. The lawsuit, filed with the Central Administrative Court, names the SSO as the first defendant and the SSO's medical board, SSO secretary-general Phairoj Suksamrit and the SSO's board of directors as the second, third and fourth defendants, respectively. The SSO issued a statement on October 28, 2005, asking private hospitals joining the scheme to accept payments of Bt377 per beneficiary starting from November 1, 2005, in place of the previous system of a flat payment of Bt6,000 to expectant SSO beneficiaries. Prapha said her association had repeatedly asked the SSO to honour the condition for a separate subsidy for infant-care services. An SSO board member commented that the written statement, issued by the directors of a previous board, that the SSO would shoulder the infant-care service fee, had put the current board at a huge legal disadvantage.
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