New Primary Healthcare System for Migrant Workers
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has appointed four Anchor Operators (AOs) to deliver a new primary healthcare system for migrant workers. As part of this system, MOM will also introduce a new primary care plan (PCP), which is a healthcare financing scheme, for employers and migrant workers. These two measures, to be implemented in 2022, will provide migrant workers with quality, affordable and accessible healthcare that is catered to their needs.
Appointment of Anchor Operators
2 Under the new primary healthcare system, Singapore will be organised into six geographical sectors, each to be run by an AO. MOM has appointed three medical service providers (Fullerton Healthcare Group Pte Ltd, SATA CommHealth and StarMed Specialist Centre Pte Ltd) as AOs for five geographical sectors after evaluating the proposals submitted for MOM’s Request for Proposal (RFP). For the sixth geographical sector, MOM appointed St Andrew’s Mission Hospital (SAMH), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), as the operator under a philanthropy-led initiative. The mix of operators will enable MOM to assess the benefits and strengths that different commercial and NGO operators bring.
3 All four AOs have experience in caring for migrant workers. They will provide primary healthcare services at medical centres complemented with 24/7 telemedicine services. They will also ensure rapid response to public health concerns in dormitories via mobile clinical teams. To minimise language and cultural barriers, they will put in place IT-enabled multilingual translation capabilities and augment the clinical team with healthcare workers who can speak the native languages of our migrant workers.
4 Migrant workers will be automatically enrolled with the AO in the geographical sector of their residence, so that they can seek care conveniently near where they live and build a strong patient-doctor relationship over time.
5 The new primary healthcare system is also complemented by designated General Practitioner Clinics to form part of the larger healthcare ecosystem comprising other partners such as public healthcare institutions and private hospitals.
Primary Care Plan
6 At the same time, MOM will introduce a new primary care plan to ensure that healthcare services for migrant workers are kept affordable. Under the PCP, medical consultations and treatments, medical examination for work pass purposes, and telemedicine services will be covered. Further details on the services covered under the PCP can be found in Annex A.
7 The PCP prices range from $108 to $145 per worker per year based on the competitive bids submitted under the RFP. This can be paid by employers in regular instalments such as through monthly payments.
8 To encourage prudent use of medical resources and instil personal ownership of their own health, migrant workers will pay the AOs a medical treatment fee of $5 for each visit to the medical centre, and $2 for each telemedicine session.
9 Further details on the appointed AOs and locations of these medical centres across the six geographical sectors can be found in Annex B.
10 More details on the implementation of the new primary healthcare system and PCP will be released in 2022.