State-run Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) confirmed it would bear the treatment cost for patients with mysterious acute kidney failure, starting from symptom screening to routine dialysis and organ transplants.
“If the patients are registered as BPJS Kesehatan participants, including children with kidney failure, we will cover the bill,” Director of BPJS Kesehatan, Ghufron Mukti, stated after attending the 2022 National Meeting of Health Facilities in Jakarta, Wednesday.
He noted that kidney failure fell into the category of catastrophic disease that required lengthy, high-cost medical treatment.
So far, catastrophic diseases, including kidney failure, were one of the illnesses borne by BPJS Kesehatan, Mukti noted.
He remarked that kidney transplantation, hemodialysis, and Coninous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) treatment were three health services for kidney disease that had been covered by BPJS Kesehatan.
The total cost covered by the agency for kidney transplantation reached Rp378 million and includes examination, observation, medicines, and recovery, he revealed.
Meanwhile, the cost covered by BPJS Kesehatan for all hemodialysis treatments reaches Rp92 million per year, if it is conducted twice a week per patient. The total cost borne by BPJS Kesehatan for the CAPD treatment is Rp76 million per year for one patient.
Mukti remarked that the entire budget included the treatment of mysterious acute kidney failure.
“As long as the patient submits to BPJS Kesehatan through the correct procedure, we will cover the treatment cost,” he emphasized.
The number of cases of acute kidney failure reported to the Health Ministry until October 18, 2022, amounted to 206 cases from 20 provinces, with a mortality case of 99 children, wherein the mortality rate of patients treated at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital reached 65 percent.
The Health Ministry had instructed health workers at health service facilities to temporarily stop prescribing drugs in liquid or syrup dosage forms until the results of the research are complete.
The ministry is conducting research to find suspected compounds in syrup drugs that could cause acute kidney failure.
Source: Antara News