According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), one of Southeast Asia’s biggest hospital networks, is facing business risks on two fronts after the company’s scandal-hit founder resigned and the Thai government moved to regulate treatment fees. This could affect the inflow of international patients.
The article says the future remains unclear regarding BDMS’s leadership. The BDMS board named Chief Financial Officer Narumol Noi-am as acting president, following Prasert Prasarttong-osoth’s resignation as CEO and president. Prasert was fined millions of dollars by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission on a finding that he manipulated the share price of Bangkok Airways, in which he is a major shareholder. Prasert intends to plead not guilty.
BDMS operates a total of 47 hospitals in Thailand and Cambodia, achieving rapid growth from medical tourists and private patients in Thailand. It is the world’s second-biggest hospital chain by market capitalization, behind HCA Healthcare of the US and ahead of Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare, as of the end of 2018. The article states that foreign customers contribute to 30% of the company’s sales in 2017, despite making up just 14% of all outpatients served. BDMS has maintained profit growth of over 6% in the past several years, and the article attributes much of this growth to Prasert.
Meanwhile another risk is being faced by BDMS and the wider private healthcare sector in Thailand. The Thai cabinet has said it would steer prices of medical products and services amid criticism of private-sector hospital fees that significantly exceed those of public care. Medicines at private hospitals can cost 70 times or more what they do at state facilities, Thai media have reported, and Thailand’s private hospitals have, according to this article, thrived on the freedom to set their own prices for care and medicine.
BDMS hospitals are concentrated in Thailand, which it vulnerable to political changes at home. The medical sector has voiced opposition to government controls, but with Thailand’s long-awaited general election coming in March, the junta may intensify its criticism of high profits in the industry.
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