Abu Dhabi raises some health fees, cuts others

Abu Dhabi has raised some medical fees and cut others as part of a new comprehensive health pricing system which officials said is intended to achieve a balance in those fees, a newspaper reported on Monday. Patients visiting doctors will now pay 25 per cent more but will pay nearly 24.5 per cent less for laboratory tests under the new system introduced by the Abu Dhabi Health Authority (ADHA) for 2012, Emirat Alyoum said. Fees for sleeping at the hospital were raised by 22 per cent per night while doctors visiting patients at home will get 14 per cent more. “The new system includes a re-distribution of fees on all medical services in a way that will not cause inflation,” the paper said, quoting Mahmoud Abu Radaha, director of products and services prices at ADGA. He said the new system was prompted by the fact that the prices of nearly 280 products and services are considered exaggerated while 164 services are found to be under-priced. “The new list will be used as a price index for two years.”