Currently, the government covers the cost of diagnostic radiology services at public hospitals.
The government has said it may charge separately for services such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, although emergency and hospitalised patients will remain exempt.
Officials say they hope hospital fees can be adjusted to a level where there would be a reasonable co-payment.
Michael Wong, a director at the Hospital Authority, said Hongkongers will likely be asked to pay a certain amount for “more complicated” radiology services, but this should not cost them too much.
“This co-payment should still be a highly subsidised amount [from the government]. The public should expect the co-payment to be minimal, and [it] will not affect most of the patients,” he said.
“If the patients really have some financial difficulties in paying that small amount, they can still apply for a fee exemption or reduction.”
Introducing a co-payment model could be a way to tackle patient no-shows, Wong said, with around 10 percent of them missing scheduled appointments for medical imaging tests like CT and MRI scans.
“Hopefully, [we] could reduce this proportion of patients defaulting their attendance, and they could release the appointments for some other patients,” he said.
Paul Lee, who chairs the authority’s coordinating committee in radiology, said there were also cases of patients attending a scheduled appointment despite no longer requiring a check-up.
Some of them, who had scheduled for a scan due to certain symptoms presented at the time of the medical consultation, had been treated for and recovered from their ailments before they could undergo the test, Lee explained.
