A TOTAL of $10.5 million was paid out by BSP Life under its health insurance scheme for all medical conditions last year.
BSP Life’s chief operations officer Atelina Muavono said out of the total payout, $1.2m was for cancer and tumour conditions only, which also included the evacuation of 23 members.
Mrs Muavono said people between the ages of 40 and 50 years had the highest value of claims amounting to $2.94m or 28 per cent of all the claims.
However, for those between the ages of 31 and 40, their medical claims amounted to $2.4m or 23 per cent of all the claims.
She said there had been challenges encountered by BSP Life to evacuate members for cancer treatments.
“The delays in obtaining reports from both private and public medical providers, lack of clarity and details in the medical reports to allow overseas specialists to provide BSP Life a thorough medical opinion on whether the patient can be further treated at the overseas medical facility are some of the challenges we face,” she said.
Mrs Muavono said at times, primarily because of lack of proper local medical diagnostic equipment, reports do not have full information for the overseas specialists.
She said it was always vital for patients to present themselves early for diagnosis.
“The late presentation of patients with cancer resulting in them not being medically cleared to be able to be evacuated or late presentation means longer comprehensive treatment that fully utilises the insured’s benefits limits, thus not allowing insurance funds to cover medical reviews which is very important for the patient.
“Where limits expire, the patient needs to self-fund. So we encourage early presentation which is very beneficial to patients.”
