Muscat: Come February 2019, there will be a hike in various services provided by the Ministry of Health, according to a circular issued by the Ministry.
Starting February 2019, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is raising the fee for 212 services provided for both nationals and expatriates, says a circular from the ministry.
In a ministerial decision announced on Sunday, the MoH has increased the medical test fee for employees in the private sector to RO 30 for obtaining the resident card.
The fee hike is part of many other measures taken through ministerial decision 239/2018, which will come into force from February 1, 2019.
The cost of services provided by the ministry, including deposits on admission to government hospitals, ambulance charges, vaccination fees, permits to import medication, and permits to establish private hospitals, clinics and pharmacies will see a rise.
Omanis will have to pay RO 20 as medical examination fee if they are marrying abroad.
According to the decision, expatriates have to pay RO 2 for attestation of a medical certificate brought from abroad.
Currently, the fee for medical test for getting a resident card is RO 3.
The resident card has to be renewed once every two years.
The fee hike did not come as a surprise to financial experts as they see it as part of the ministry’s efforts to ramp up its revenues to meet the rising healthcare expenditure.
“The decision comes on the expected lines as the ministry is looking for ways to generate revenues as it is totally dependent on budget allocations and subsidies,” said Hameed al Lawati, a financial expert with a local bank.
According to him, the health ministry has been exploring ways to finance many of its services by increasing charges and other strategies.
“Even though the decision will make for a big change, at least it will make some impact,” he added.
Salaries and allowances represent 73.5 per cent of the recurrent expenditure in the ministry.
In the 2018 budget, the Ministry of Health received an allocation of RO 654 million, which was 6.74 per cent higher than the previous year.
According to data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the expatriate workers stood at 1,797,613 at the end of October this year.
“This means the present hike in the medical examination fee coupled with many other charges will help the ministry fetch a phenomenal amount every year,” said Ashok Bhatt, finance manager of a private company.
However, he said there is no clarification as to who will pay the fee, the company or the workers.
The ministry also hiked the fees for issuing a certificate of experience for non-Omani medical and medical assistant category to RO 20. The licence fee for assistant medical professions for non-Omanis, except a pharmaceutical profession, has been fixed at RO 100.
Accordingly, expatriates will be charged with RO 30 for the medical tests that are mandatory to get a resident card.
Similarly, those expatriates working in the public sector will have to pay RO 10 to obtain a health card to process a residence permit here.
Speaking
to the Observer, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Health (MoH) said
that the decision was in accordance with the Ministerial Decision
239/2018 published in the official gazette that fixed the fees for
various services provided by the government and that it will come into
existence on February 1, 2019.
"Services
provided to the expatriates in the country will be hiked effective
February 2019. Expatriates working in the public sector will have to pay
RO 10 for medical tests for renewing their visa while the same is RO 30
for foreign nationals working in the private sector", he added.
The Ministerial
Decision 239/2018 has also fixed the fees of as many as 212
services provided by the ministry and there will be a charged of RO 2
for the approval of a medical examination certificate and sick leave
issued abroad. Similarly, a fee of RO 20 will be applicable for issuing a
certificate of experience for the non-Omani medical and medical
assistant category while an amount of RO 20 will be charged for medical
tests from those who want to get married to a foreign national , and a
fee of RO 100 will be charged for the approval to change names of pharma
companies or merger, according to the circular.
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