Consultants' fees

I was greatly surprised at the way Dr Mario Zerafa, chairman, consultant sub-committee, Medical Association of Malta, took me to task for my comments on suspected overcharging by some medical consultants. This clearly shows that consultants treat medical insurance firms very differently from the way they treat people.

Dr Zerafa went all out to attack my assertion that some consultants are suspected of overcharging and that consultants' tariffs are shooting up, without any form of control from any competent authority.

But he did not react when the chairman of the Bioethics Consultative Committee described the fees charged by Maltese doctors as a free-for-all and that many of them charged what they thought they could get away with.

It also seems that Dr Zerafa does not hold the medical profession in very high esteem when, without knowing, he compared this most noble profession to 100 grammes of cheese or ham. People go shopping around for such commodities, they do not for medical services. It would be most unworthy of me to choose a person of inferior capabilities to cure my children because his fees are lower than those of some of his peers.

Dr Zerafa opted to mention the MAM-BUPA agreement of 1997. What Dr Zerafa failed to mention was the fact that at that time there were already four medical insurance companies in the local market.

Besides, at that same time Laferla Insurance Agency limited was having talks with the MAM president to bring MAM and all the medical insurance companies round a table to try to reach an agreement between all the parties concerned.

All of a sudden, the agreement mentioned by Dr Zerafa was presented to all medical insurance companies as a fait accompli and everybody had to abide by those rates.

Had these rates been agreed upon with us, we assure Dr Zerafa that we would have honoured them as we honour all the agreements that we have with all the hospitals and clinics and as we honour all the pledges we make to our clients whose number runs in thousands.

Furthermore, people in the medical profession can vouch for our promptness of payment whenever their fees are fair and reasonable.

Dr Zerafa may rest assured that if and when an agreement on tariffs and fees is reached between the local medical insurers and MAM, our company will honour the agreement.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning here a case decided by the small claims tribunal some months ago against a consultant. The tribunal decided that the fees charged by this consultant were excessive. Without having any indication of our rates, the tribunal decided on rates we consider as fair and reasonable. We were not a party in this case!

As regards competition, we are not that keen to have Dr Zerafa as our consultant to advise us on how to beat competition. We know what we have to do and nobody has up to now accused us of, or hinted at, any unethical behaviour. Ultimately, there are our clients who give us moral support and who are very proud to be covered by plans offered by our company.

May I also add that Dr Zerafa failed to take my point because the main issue of my latest contribution was the Medical Council and my agreement with the suggestion made by Prof. J.A. Muscat that there should be an amendment to the constitution to allow for lay representation on the Medical Council.

Mr Dalli is manager, medical insurance department, Laferla Insurance Agency Ltd.