Hospital Authority announces General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership Programme service fee miscalculation incident

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson today (June 14) announced the following incident concerning miscalculation of service fees of the General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership (GOPC PPP) Programme:
 
     The GOPC PPP Programme Office received an enquiry from a Participating Service Provider (PSP) on June 8 regarding a discrepancy in service fees. Upon follow-up of the case, the Information Technology and Health Informatics (IT&HI) Division found that wrong information was inputted during a technical upgrading process for the GOPC PPP Programme, leading to miscalculation of service fees for several PSPs.
 
     The HA is very concerned about the incident and requested related departments to conduct a thorough investigation. Following a review of the system records, it was revealed that the system error caused miscalculation of the service fees of six PSPs. Among them, one PSP has received overpayment of $445.50, which involved 33 consultations. The other five PSPs have submitted reimbursement claims while payment has been withheld for the time being. The HA has informed the six PSPs about the incident and will rectify their service fee records.
 
     This incident has not affected the payments by GOPC PPP patients. Upon cross-checking of the system, the IT&HI Division confirmed that no other clinical public-private partnership programme had been affected.
 
     The IT&HI Division has rectified the service fee information in the system for the GOPC PPP Programme, and will strengthen the process of system update testing and verification as well as anomaly detection to prevent recurrence of similar incidents in future.