News Forum - Tuesday Covid Update: 2,476 new cases; provincial totals

[Nivram]

My insurance company ( Cigna ) will not cover in hospital coverage related to Covid.

Now there are 7,526 new cases.

If you are not in ICU in a hospital on a respirator, what does the hospital give patients to recover.

There is no cure.

[js89]

47 minutes ago, Stonker said:

I neither think that, nor have I ever said that or anything like it.

That's what you've spent your last several replies telling me is not the case. And I believe it's what you're saying below too. 

 

47 minutes ago, Stonker said:

What you're claiming, literally, is that private hospitals are breaking the law and kidnapping people, Thais and tourists, to extort money from them and their insurers - and that the insurers are paying up.

That's what you're claiming.

Seriously?

 

 

I never said they're breaking the law or kidnapping anyone. Those are your words. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the law is on their side. 

However, hospitals are most assuredly taking advantage of tourists who test positive in order to get a sizeable revenue stream.

If it would not violate confidentiality, I'd actually post a blow by blow Line chat of one case where someone tested positive on their second PCR, was asymptomatic, but was compelled to go to hospital for 10 days, along with PDF copies of the the outrageous bills.

In another very similar case, the bill for 10 days of hospital quarantine topped 275K baht. 

If you, who lives in Thailand, don't know already that Thailand has some pretty questionable business ethics, perhaps you should open your eyes wider. 

And you can bet your ass that the insurers are not happy about it, but the hospitals are not breaking the law. Just exercising their discretion to have the patient admitted and flouting their questionable business ethics.

Oh, and it's all for the good of the patient of course - they'll be much safer in hospital where the excellent doctors can take good care of them. 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by js89

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, js89 said:

That's what you've spent your last several replies telling me is not the case. And I believe it's what you're saying below too. 

I never said they're breaking the law or kidnapping anyone. Those are your words. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the law is on their side. 

However, hospitals are most assuredly taking advantage of tourists who test positive in order to get a sizeable revenue stream.

If it would not violate confidentiality, I'd actually post a blow by blow Line chat of one case where someone tested positive on their second PCR, was asymptomatic, but was compelled to go to hospital for 10 days, along with PDF copies of the the outrageous bills.

In another very similar case, the bill for 10 days of hospital quarantine topped 275K baht. 

If you, who lives in Thailand, don't know already that Thailand has some pretty questionable business ethics, perhaps you should open your eyes wider. 

And you can bet your ass that the insurers are not happy about it, but the hospitals are not breaking the law. Just exercising their discretion to have the patient admitted and flouting their questionable business ethics.

Oh, and it's all for the good of the patient of course - they'll be much safer in hospital where the excellent doctors can take good care of them. 

I don't know if English is your second language or not, but at no time have I ever suggested in any way that "nobody who is asymptomatic is being sent to hospital".

It simply hasn't happened, and it would be against the NHSO policy which I quoted.

If the rest of what you claim is that wide of the mark then it's hard to give anything  you say any credibility, since the law and the NHSO regulations and policy are very clear.

[Marc26]

1 hour ago, Nivram said:

My insurance company ( Cigna ) will not cover in hospital coverage related to Covid.

Now there are 7,526 new cases.

If you are not in ICU in a hospital on a respirator, what does the hospital give patients to recover.

There is no cure.

High grade oxygen

Antibody treatment

 

My sister was in hospital with covid for 3 weeks, never went to ICU but was on high grade oxygen which improved her breathing

 

My brother was in ICU on a vent for 19 days

 

I think the "cure" is helping your organs function.......

[Marc26]

23 hours ago, js89 said:

Yes it does.

However, the consequences of PCR testing in Thailand are such that people are confined to a hospital against their will, even if asymptomatic, if they get a positive result. 

This has the net effect of causing people to avoid taking a PCR and thus skews the official statistics massively. 

In the last week, I know at least 20 people personally who have tested positive on an ATK in Bangkok. Not a single one of them has chosen to take a confirmatory PCR, instead just isolating at home. These people are not counted in the official statistics. This is being repeated over and over again, all over the country.

The official numbers are a gross underestimate, by at least an order of magnitude.

I know many Thais who tested positive at hospitals and were sent home to isolate

 

My BIL and his gf being one of them

 

Many of my wife's neighbors in Samut Prakan

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, Nivram said:

My insurance company ( Cigna ) will not cover in hospital coverage related to Covid.

Now there are 7,526 new cases.

If you've been here since pre-Covid you're eligible for treatment for Covid in state hospitals, or quarantine in a state hospital if positive as you're over 65.

If you haven't been, in which case you should be insured, or if you want treatment or to be quarantined in a private hospital, that's your choice.

[Stonker]

2 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

I know many Thais who tested positive at hospitals and were sent home to isolate

My BIL and his gf being one of them

Many of my wife's neighbors in Samut Prakan

Exactly.

That's the reality and the stated (and quoted) NHSO policy.

[js89]

2 hours ago, Stonker said:

I don't know if English is your second language or not, but at no time have I ever suggested in any way that "nobody who is asymptomatic is being sent to hospital".

It simply hasn't happened, and it would be against the NHSO policy which I quoted.

If the rest of what you claim is that wide of the mark then it's hard to give anything  you say any credibility, since the law and the NHSO regulations and policy are very clear.

Good grief, what is it that is so hard to grasp? I'm not talking about the law or regulations or the NHSO policy, which you seem to be fixated on. You brought that up, not me. 

I'm stating that many asymptomatic tourists are being sent to hospital to quarantine instead of being allowed to self-isolate in their condo or at a suitable hotel. All no doubt well within the law, but still a deliberate and in many cases unnecessary money-grab.

I've never stated what the official policy or the law is and I never intended to do such.

Perhaps it's you having a little trouble with the English language, or more likely reading what you want to read so that you can have something to argue about? You seem a very argumentative sort...

[js89]

2 hours ago, Marc26 said:

I know many Thais who tested positive at hospitals and were sent home to isolate

My BIL and his gf being one of them

Many of my wife's neighbors in Samut Prakan

Sure, so do I. Many. I also know some who have been sent to a hospital.

[Nivram]

What is high grade oxygen compared to low grade oxygen?

Is it like when you buy  petrol 95 vs 91?

[Nivram]

How many people that were sent home by the hospital to self isolate actually stay home and not go outside?

Anybody check?  NO

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, Nivram said:

How many people that were sent home by the hospital to self isolate actually stay home and not go outside?

Anybody check?  NO

Exactly.

In Aus and NZ it is (or at least was!) possible, but with the numbers here it's not.

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, Nivram said:

What is high grade oxygen compared to low grade oxygen?

Is it like when you buy  petrol 95 vs 91?

Higher purity.

[Stonker]

10 hours ago, js89 said:

Perhaps it's you having a little trouble with the English language, or more likely reading what you want to read so that you can have something to argue about? You seem a very argumentative sort...

The crux of the matter, and why I frequently post as I do.

Argumentative, quite possibly (even arguably ) but those hospitalised unnecessarily, contrary to NHSO regulations, who are paying out between 150,000 and 300,000 baht that they shouldn't be, and those who are avoiding a PCR test because they're worried that they'll be "confined to a hospital against their will, even if asymptomatic, if they get a positive result"  can turn to forums like this to get two types of responses:

1. Somewhere to complain about being farangs being "scammed", some sympathy, and someone who'll "agree" how terrible it all is that they're being given "outrageous bills" by Thais with "questionable business ethics ... taking advantage of tourists".

2. Accurate and detailed information explaining the system and the rules, and giving them alternatives and numbers to call so they can do something about it if they find themselves in that position ("Contact National Health Security Office at 1330 by phone or their Line official account" and "For enquiries on home isolation, call the Department of Disease Control hotline at 1422.").

I happen to go for Option 2, even if some here prefer Option 1 which is what leads to the 'arguments'.

If I was about to pay 150,000 to 300,000 baht unnecessarily and all I had to do to avoid it was to i) read and know the rules and the options, and ii) call the phone numbers given, I like to think I'd go for Option 2 as well.

[Stonker]

9 hours ago, js89 said:

Sure, so do I. Many. I also know some who have been sent to a hospital.

Exactly - "some".

It's mandatory for "some", such as those who aren't "younger than 65 years old with no health conditions that put them at risk of a severe infection" and who don't "have living space where they can isolate from others".

For the rest there ARE other options - and, if they were here pre-Covid, other hospitals.

[js89]

4 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Exactly - "some".

It's mandatory for "some", such as those who aren't "younger than 65 years old with no health conditions that put them at risk of a severe infection" and who don't "have living space where they can isolate from others".

For the rest there ARE other options - and, if they were here pre-Covid, other hospitals.

While I appreciate that there are specific procedures that one can follow and which you have taken great pain to lay out in detail, there are numerous cases I'm aware of where things have not turned out so well and where people have been confined, despite not fitting the above definition. 

It's not as black and white as you'd like to believe.

No, not everyone is forcibly confined to a hospital.

But by the same token, not everybody who is asymptomatic, has no underlying health condition and has a suitable space is allowed to isolate in their own living space. The system categorically is being exploited by the private health providers.

Perhaps the links you gave to the correct procedures will help anyone who finds themselves in such a situation and who comes to this forum for advice to avoid being confined against their will in cases where they have a suitable place to quarantine. And then you'll get some appreciative upvotes for posting helpful content.