Some insurance companies have a clause that they will pay the claims
only if the patient is admitted to the hospital.
They do not seem to realise that nowadays some major treatments are
done as outpatient procedure.
For example most doctors do the cataract surgery as an out patient
procedure but this is a surgery which is pretty costly and it is
considered a major surgery.
Because of this clause the patients get admitted when it is not
necessary. Actually the insurance companies loose out in the long run
for they are paying for the admission costs unnecessarily.
What they should do is to decide what procedures/ surgeries they will
pay and give a list to the patients. Or they should have a doctor in the
panel of those who decide on the claims who will be knowledgeable
whether the procedure/ surgery/ investigations etc. are worth paying
for.
This will save a lot of money for the insurance company. It will also
save the patient the hassle of getting admitted and will relieve even
the doctors from having to see the patient an extra time unnecessarily
and from filling out extra forms.
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai - Dehiwela
I fully endorse the contents of Vernon - Dehiwela in his letter 'Duty
free allowance' (DN October 8) as I am employed in the lucrative
Middle-East for over 19 years.
There have been rampant rumours of increasing the duty free rebate
for those employed abroad; but still no increase.
And since I have been on a single employment package (with my family
living in Sri Lanka) I avail myself of my annual vacation and come down
for X'mas and thus and not entitled to the rebate facility of exceeding
over 12 months abroad; even though I am on an ongoing foreign contract;
and therefore only entitled to six months entitlement as I come on
vacation in December and return in January the next year. In addition we
are charged for even household electrical equipment; and there are
restraints on bringing in LCD TVs, airconditioners, carpets and Hot
Water geysers even if it is for our own households - as they are termed
'Luxury items.'
I sincerely hope the Controller of Customs would kindly look into
these matters and issue regulations to his officers to go into such
matters on a case by case basis and give justice to the thousands of
foreign employed individuals (still resident in Sri Lanka a fair deal)
who bring in the much needed FOREX to the country; while at the same
time deterring those individuals who are mainly bent on making a quick
business buck; as in the recent detection of a 'NOAH' vehicle in a
shipping container whose contents labelled some other hardware.
Terrence B. De Silva - Riyadh
By chance I come across a brochure issued at the inaugural meeting of
an organisation called Actuarial Association of Sri Lanka. For mere
curiosity, I glanced through and as the founder President of the
association had said "The actuarial profession is less known in Sri
Lanka with few practitioners" which is quite true.
Reading further, the objectives it would appear or could be
understood that actuarial work does not entirely concern the Insurance
Companies, but could assist other business enterprises to enhance
financial efficiency and taking management decisions.
One wonders whether such advise could be obtained from this
organisations, by individuals who have invested or intend investing in
Banks, Finance Companies etc. so that security and returns could be
assured and not fall into difficulties as seen in the case of Sakwithi
scandle.
Nihal de Silva - Colombo 6
Text massaging is the most widely used mode of communication these
days.
It appears that GSM companies are attempting to reap its benefits by
increasing charges to Rs. 5 for foreign SMS messages. I presume the next
increase may be on local text messages?
Taking into account that a charge of Rs. 12 is levied for a minute's
cell phone call to the United States or Canada, the transmitting of a
text message of about 150 letters, which is about the maximum of letters
granted, would take about five to three seconds of transmitting time,
which amounts to about one twelfth of a minute, which means that the
real cost of a text message to a foreign destination is one rupee.
Tudor Wickremasinghe - Colombo 9
It is commendable that several PHIs in Piliyandala MOH division
raided an unhygienic dairy food stall on the Colombo Road at Wewala on
November 8. They also took action to destroy the contaminated dairy
products that were displayed for sale.
It is reported that neither the manufacturer details nor the date of
manufacturing and the date of expiry were not available on the product.
Further we have come to know that legal action would be taken against
these errant sellers.
MOH Dr. Sarath Mandalawaththa and the staff perform a praiseworthy
job to protect the public sanitary of the area.
Noel Palliyaguru - Kesbewa
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