Confirmed once again: Buhagiar’s fees in excess of established costs

By Kurt Sansone

There is no end to Labour MP Louis Buhagiar’s questionable habit of charging exorbitant fees with the latest revelation being a case going back two years and involving a foreign woman, who required medical intervention while visiting her relatives in Malta.

MaltaToday can reveal that this time the former Parliamentary Secretary charged the woman professional fees to the tune of Lm800 for a six-day stay at a private hospital. This amount excludes accommodation and medication costs, which are charged separately by the hospital itself.

Prof. Buhagiar charged the woman Lm110 per day for his services even though according to the agreement reached in 1997 between the Medical Association and BUPA the fees for specialist consultations and in-patient care were set at a maximum rate of Lm60 per day.

MaltaToday is informed that Prof. Buhagiar visited the woman for less than 30 minutes each day.

The bill also includes another charge of Lm120 for an ‘Exercise ECG’, which the patient required as part of her treatment. The agreement between the Medical Association and BUPA stipulates a maximum rate of Lm30 for an ‘Exercise ECG’.

The patient’s bills were paid in full by her son-in-law, who has been working and residing in Malta for over nine years. However, till this very day, two years after the Lm800 bill was settled the patient’s son-in-law has not yet received a receipt from Prof. Buhagiar despite repeated attempts to get in touch with the doctor.

With no receipt in hand the patient could not claim the expenses from her insurance company. And to add insult to injury the insurance company informed the patient that it would still have to question Prof. Buhagiar on the nature of the charges before settling the exorbitant bill.

The patient’s son-in-law even went as far as writing to the Health Department about the fees charged. "I would like to know whether these healthcare service prices are normal practices here in Malta because my insurance company seems to put question marks on this matter," he asked the Health authorities. Despite producing all relevant invoices, payment vouchers and correspondence, the patient’s son-in-law was left in the dark by the health department. The query also involved charges levied by St Luke’s Hospital and Capua Hospital.

Meanwhile, reacting to the story carried by this newspaper on 11 August the Medical Association chose to furnish MaltaToday with extracts from the MAM-BUPA agreement signed in 1997.

MAM General Secretary Martin Balzan said that in this document the reimbursement by insurers for 24-hour responsibility of specialist patient care is up to Lm60 per day. This is indicated in Schedule D of the said agreement.

Dr Balzan informed MaltaToday that the agreement is being revised with insurers because it expired at the end of 2000. In his reaction the MAM official stressed that the association had no intention of getting involved in partisan politics. He added: "It would be appreciated that for fairness sake, this matter be clarified to your readers."

Prof. Buhagiar’s exorbitant fee habit certainly needs no clarification because facts stand on their own. Despite saying on television that he had won the Small Claims Tribunal case involving bills charged for treatment of a terminally ill patient, Prof. Buhagiar conveniently did not make reference to the part of the judgement which said that the fee charged was ‘excessive’. This case was revealed by MaltaToday in May this year.

Even though in January 2002 the tribunal decreed that the relatives of the terminally ill patient had to pay the bill, the final amount was reduced from Lm60 per day to Lm50.

Furthermore, Prof. Buhagiar who has commenced libel proceedings against MaltaToday is also in the spotlight of British emergency medical insurance companies for the exorbitant fees he charges tourists requiring emergency medical treatment while visiting Malta.

And still the MLP’s vigilance board stands impassive despite repeated proof confirming Prof. Buhagiar’s excessive fee habit.

kurt@maltamag.com