Unefficiency of KK Hospital's Billing System

My son Irza was admitted to KK Hospital on 16 February 2006. During admission procedure at the Children's Emergency, the staff gave me an exaggerated estimation of the total hospital bill. Even for the C class ward, this is the estimated bill size:

ICU and treatment charges: $1,377.60
Ward and treatment charges: $456.40
Estimated investigations, tests and medication/drug charges: $17,500.00

Total: $19,334.00

Medisave claimable: $10,500.00

Estimated amount to be paid: $8,834.00

Initial payment to be paid: $9,000.00

Therefore, the staff asked me to make the initial payment of $9,000! That is on top of the $65 I have paid for the A&E (emergency) attendance fee. I was shocked that I would need to make such hefty initial payment only to admit my son to hospital. I was wondering, how about those who cannot afford to make such initial payment? Does it mean that those people will not be able to admit their children to the hospital?

In a state of anxiety due to my son's health condition, I didn't have any other choices except to pay the hefty initial payment. Luckily I have a credit card which has such the high limit.

My son was discharged from the hospital on 20 February 2006. They told me that I would not be able to get the details of the final bill size on the spot. The details will be sent via post in two weeks time. Any refund, if there's any, will be sent via cheque via post as well.

Two weeks has passed since the day of discharge, and I haven't received the final bill yet. And yet, I needed it urgently for me to claim the medical bills from my insurance company. So, on Tuesday, 7 March 2006, I rang the hospital's billing department again to ask for the status, and they said that they were still finalising the details and I shall received the final bill in one to two days time.

Two days has passed, and I haven't received the details. So on Thursday, 9 March 2006, I called them again. They said that the final bill is on the way, nevertheless they will send another copy in case I don't receive it.

I finally got the tax invoice from KK Hospital on Friday, 10 March 2006. Do you know how much is the total bill size? Only $810.97 (including the $65 A&E attendance fee), and all were covered by my Medisave account. Therefore, I needed to pay nothing, and they would refund me $9,065.00 for the excess payment. Sound ridiculous, eh? So I made the initial payment of $9,000.00 for nothing!

I was thinking that the cheque will be sent together with the tax invoice. I was wrong! The invoice mentioned that the cheque for any refund due will be sent in due course. OK, never mind, meaning I would not be able to get my money back in time before I went to Jakarta for a one-week holiday. On Friday itself, I immediately made a copy of the tax invoice and submitted it to my company's HR department for them to process the insurance claim. I left for Jakarta on 11 March 2006, hoping that I shall get the cheque once I come back.

Sunday, 19 March 2006, I came back to Singapore and was surprised to find out that I haven't received the cheque in my mailbox. The next day, I rang KK Hopsital again and they informed me that they were still processing the cheque! It was almost a month since my son was discharged from the hospital. Why they needed such a bloody long time only to refund other people's money??

Time went by, and after numerous desperate calls to the hospital for the whole week, I finally got the cheque on Saturday, 25 March 2006. Does the story end here? No! Again, I was shocked to find out that the beneficiary name is wrong! They have mispelled my name on the cheque, making me impossible to clear the cheque! Oh My God! Amazing!

I made another call to the hospital, and since it was Saturday evening, I was told that the business office has been closed for the day. Well I didn't care, I was asked to be escalated to higher authority who can ensure that I can get back my money by that day. The staff then transferred me to the Children's Emergency, because it's the only department which is opened during that time. Again, I was confused, how can the emergency department assist me on billing/refund issues?

Never mind, I then spoke to the staff from the children's emergency, and explained again the situation. Basically, no matter what, I wanted to have my money back by that day. She said that she would transfer me to a 24-hour on-call business officer, but after the phone was transferred, it got cut off. I tried desperately to call back the children's emergency hotline, but nobody picked up even though I tried several times. They might be busy attending sick children over there, and I didn't want to bug them with some billing issues. So I decided to gave up, and planned to call the business office on Monday instead.

On Monday, 27 March 2006, I called the business office, and informed the staff about the wrong beneficiary name on the cheque. The staff advised me to come to their office for me to get the refund in cash! You can imagine, $9,065 in cash! Even the staff was surprised to hear that the refund amount was $9,065. I asked her whether I can get a cheque instead, but she said it's best for me to have it in cash instead.

OK, finally I can get my money back on Wednesday, 29 March 2006, when I went to the business office at the 4th floor of the Children's Tower, in cash. After which, I immediately went to the POSB Newton Branch nearby to bank it in. Total, it takes 1 month and 9 days for me to get my money back, since the day of discharge. I was wondering whether I can claim the interests for the money they keep for the more than one month period? Even in Singapore which has low interest fees, with 1% annual interest fee, I can get $7.50 from a $9,000 amount within a month, enough for me to buy 5 hamburgers from McDonalds.

Amazing!

PS. The Indonesian version of this post can be found here.

Safari Indonesian Noodle House

One of the places I can visit in Singapore if I want to have Indonesian style chicken noodle soup, is the Safari Indonesian Noodle House stall, in Seah Im Food Court. Seah Im Food Court is actually more to a hawker centre instead of food court, since it's open air and it's not air-conditioned. It's located just next to the Harbourfront bus interchange, opposite the Harbourfront Centre. The stall is located at the eastern end, near the bus bay where the Sentosa buses depart.

The portion is quite big, and the price is reasonable. Basic chicken noodle soup is sold at $2.50 per bowl. Mushroom chicken noodle soup, meatballs chicken noodle soup and wanton chicken noodle soup are sold at $3.00 per bowl, and more combination of the above will cost more. On top of that, they also sell Indonesian-style ribs soup and oxtail soup, but I haven't tried those.

Unfortunately, looks like the stall does not open every day. After two successful trips earlier, today (Tuesday, 28/3) I tried to go there again with my wife during lunch time, and it's closed. Not too sure whether it's closed on Tuesdays, or whether it's now closed permanently. Hopefully not!

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

New shopping malls around Jakarta

One of the growing trends in many big cities in Asia, including Singapore, Jakarta and other big cities in the region, is the increasing numbers of new shopping malls being built. Looks like now, going to malls is one of the most popular pastimes for almost everyone in the region, including Indonesia, particularly Jakarta and some of other big cities in Indonesia.

I have never been to certain parts of Jakarta since I've lived in Singapore in the past 6 years. Last week, I had a chance to visit Depok, a suburb town just south of Jakarta, which I used to visit frequently since that's where my university campus is located. And I am really surprised to see the development of Depok in the past decade, especially the development of the shopping malls around the area.

Just a couple of hundred meters away from my campus, I saw a new big shopping mall, Depok Town Square, which is better known as "Detos". Across the road, there's another big shopping mall which is on the last phase of completion. Near the bus terminal, there's another shopping mall, ITC Depok, with Carrefour hypermart as the anchor tenant.

The one I managed to visit is the Depok Town Square (see left picture). It's a very big mall, unfortunately it's a bit empty, probably because it's quite new. There's the big Matahari hypermart on the basement, and some stores and restaurants on the ground and first floor. The higher the floor, the emptier it is.

A bit nearer to my family's house in Cinere, there's also a new shopping mall being opened in Lebak Bulus area. It's called Poins Square (see right picture), with the Giant hypermart on the basement floor as the anchor tenant. The location is exactly opposite the Carrefour hypermart nearby. Wow, what a great competition! The mall is quite big, almost as big as Depok Town Square, except it has more open stores compared to Detos, which is fairly empty.

Another newly built shopping mall, which is actually not really new but I only managed to visit it last week, is Pondok Indah Mall (PIM) 2, which is located just across the road from the famous PIM 1. It's connected to PIM 1 with two bridges, giving seamless connection between the two malls. Compared to Poins Square or Detos which is more for middle class, PIM 2 is more for the high class, with high class shops and restaurants, similar to Ngee Ann City (Takashimaya) in Singapore. Nevertheless, the new food court at the third floor is worth visiting, with almost all cuisines available, from Soto Betawi, Fiesta Steak to KFC.

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Blogger/Blogspot Performance Issue

Recently, I always have some performance issues on all my blogs hosted by Blogspot. The problem usually happened during evening to night our time (or morning to afternoon US time). Strangely, I seldom have this problem during morning our time (or evening/night US time). Looks like the problem is due to more and more blogs hosted by Blogspot, causing degradation on the performance of the server(s) hosting the blogs.

When the problem happens, it takes longer for me to load the blogs, and also it takes longer for me to access blogger.com site for me to update the blogs. But the most irritating part is when I want to upload an inline image to the blog. After I click "Add Image", choose the image and then click "Upload Image", sometimes I will just get blank screen on the pop-up. Sometimes, I can get the message saying that the image has been uploaded, but after I click "Done", I don't see the image on my compose blog window. And I have to do it all over again, several times until the image is really uploaded, and it's really frustating.

Sometimes, I would just compose the text first and save the post as draft, and wait until the next morning (when I seldom have the problem) for me to upload all the images and then publish the post.

I have been thinking for quite some time to move my blog to another blogging provider, especially those WordPress-based such as blogsome.com, but up until now I have not decided to move yet, and still want to stick with Blogspot. But, if the issue keeps on dragging, I don't know how can I tahan and I might need to move to another blogging provider soon.

Anyone experiences the same problem?

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Nice Food in Batam

This list of nice food in Batam is compiled based on information provided by Tyty Hadi, which was posted on the indo-sing mailing list. You might find this list handy when you're visiting Batam and don't know where to go to find good food. :)

1. Golden Prawn Seafood - 8 kilometers from Nagoya town centre towards Bengkong. Nice seafood, and you can choose your own live seafood.
2. Martabak Sari Eco - Indonesian type of murtabak, choices of beef murtabak (martabak daging), with big meat inside the murtabak, and "full moon" murtabak (martabak terang bulan), with any kind of filling you can choose yourself, from cheese, peanut, chocolate rice, etc. It's located next to the Nagoya Plaza Hotel, in Nagoya.
3. Pempek Palembang "Kolekta" - Fishcake served with Palembang-special sweet and sour soya sauce. You can buy them raw and get them packed for you to cook yourself in Singapore. They serve all type of fishcake, you just need to order. It's located along Jalan Taman Indah, Blok 3 No. 11-12.
4. Sop Seafood Istemewa Yongkee - Serves all kind of soup, such as fish soup, prawn soup, squid soup, fish head soup, tom yam soup, and mixed seafood soup. It's located in Nagoya City Center Complex, Blok E No. 8-9 Lubuk Baja.
5. Soto Medan - Serves Medan-style of chicken noodles soup with beef balls. The price is only a mere 8,000 rupiahs per bowl. The address: "Safana Baru Coffee Shop", Jalan Lubuk Baja 1 Komp. Wijaya Kusuma Blok E No 8, Nagoya.
6. Ikan Bakar Pak Ndut - Quite a big grilled fish, served with chilli. The address: Kompleks Inti Sakti Blok E No. 1-2 Nagoya.
7. Sate Asih - Sells mutton satay for 14,000 rupiahs per portion, and mutton soup for 13,000 rupiahs. Nice. Address: Bengkong Harapan, Blok C No. 83-84.

So, when can we go together to Batam to have some good food? :) :)

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Kang Budi is coming to SG 16-19 March 2006

Kang Budi Rahardjo, one of only a few premier Indonesian IT pioneers, will be coming to Singapore between 16 and 19 March 2006. Even though his main purpose is to visit his daughter who is studying here in Singapore, however he also would like to have the opportunity to meet some of Indonesian IT people in Singapore, to just meet-up and have some discussions.

Unfortunately, I would not be able to meet him because during the period, I will be in Jakarta for a short holiday... I remember the last time I met Kang Budi was during the APRICOT meeting in Kuala Lumpur, dated way back in 2001.

So, guys, it's a good opportunity for you to meet him here in Singapore. :)

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Missing girl's body found, another Huang Na case returns :(

Astaghfirullah! Only recently we were saddened by the tragic Huang Na case, which was found dead after missing for several weeks, right now Singapore has another case of a missing girl, which eventually ends tragically after the body of the missing girl was found.

Taken from Channelnewsasia.com: Police have found the body believed to be that of the 2-year-old girl Nurasyura Mohamed Fauzi who went missing earlier this week. Police found the body under the Aljunied Flyover at 4pm after a 3-hour search on Saturday. The suspect is believed to be the girl's stepfather.

I am really shocked to hear that people can do such a barbaric act like that. And I am wondering, why those acts are usually done by a person close to the victim. Take an example, Huang Na was murdered by her mother's friend, who was close to the victim and was supposed to help taking care of her while her mother went back to China (although I still don't understand how can a mother just leave her daughter in Singapore for China and leave her alone to be supervised by some "friends"). And now, if what the police suspects is true, Nurasyura was being murdered by her own stepfather, who is supposed to take care of her as if she's his own daughter.

Astaghfirullah! How can it happen?

Crime can happen anytime, to anyone, even in Singapore, which is undoubtly considered one of the safest city in Asia, if not the world. Crime rate in Singapore is low, but it doesn't mean there's no crime at all. We still have to ensure that we safeguard our children, to ensure that they are OK. Just because Singapore is safer than Jakarta, for example, it doesn't mean that you have to let your guard down even if you live here in Singapore...

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Some "life" on bemo-batavia mailing list

Ah! In the past couple of days, the bemo-batavia mailing list is fruitfully (or junkfully?) fuelled with e-mails from old friends. With the comebacks of old friends like Eko Budhi Harsono (ex-Jaknet BBS sysop) and RiO Suharjo, some other old good friends like Boyke Bader, Harry Sufehmi, Djoko Kris Sundoro, Arief W. Nugraha and Abimanyu Wachjoewidajat suddenly voiced out their e-mails on the mailing list, after kept their silence for years! :) Wow, how I missed their e-mails so much! :D :D

But ah! Based on experience, this is usually seasonal. I believe, in a couple of days time, it will soon be quiet again... especially since it's been a long time since I saw T.A. Coen's and Kukuh T.W.'s e-mails on the mailing list...

Ah! :) :)

PS. You can click here if you want to know more about BemoNet. Ironically, it's written by someone who is not a Bemonet user, but does really care to document anything related to the IT development in Indonesia in the early decades...

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Shoutbox provider: migration from Doneeh to Oggix

So far, I only found two good reply-able shoutbox providers. One is Doneeh, which I used previously, and the other one is Oggix, which I'm currently using right now. Doneeh is the first shoutbox provider I used. It's quite easy to manage, the control panel is also user friendly, make it easy for me to manage the comments coming in and to reply to them. The downside: for some reason, the customisation is not working. Even though I have customised the shoutbox to have smaller fonts and nice colours, after saving and republishing, I still see the same default font and colour on the shoutbox. Have tried many many times, and the result is the same.

I asked my friend JefRi, who also uses Doneeh but he doesn't seem to have the same problem (I can see his Doneeh shoutbox is customised). He said that he has had the account for quite some time, and the problem seems to only affecting later/newer accounts. :( He suggested me to try Oggix, which I also has considered since I saw Teh Inong uses Oggix as well on her blog, and it looks indeed nice.

But when I tried to register an account on Oggix, I also had some problems initially! For some reason, I never received any confirmation e-mail from the Oggix server after I register. I have tried to use different e-mail accounts, but the same problem persisted! I even asked my friend JefRi whether he has an unused Oggix account for me to use. :P

However, fortunately, on a lucky day, I tried to register again using my Gmail e-mail account, and for some reason, it's working. I also found the Oggix control panel is even nicer and easier to use compared to Doneeh. Moreover, it supports Avatar. :)

And voila, the outcome is what you can see on the left side, a nice and colourful shoutbox for you to leave any comments. Feel free to try it! :)

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

Which PDA phone should I choose?

OK, it's now time for me to bite the bullet. I need to have an Internet-enabled PDA phone! Right now I have a Nokia 6610 mobile phone and a very old IBM Workpad c3, which I hardly use, due to its bulk size and no Internet connectivity. I need to have a PDA phone which can also be used to browse the Internet and check my e-mails.

Imagine this situation. I am at a busy Orchard shopping mall with my wife and kids, while my boss called me to check on something (he could be asking me to check network connectivity to certain network/server, or asking me to check some e-mails). Nothing much I could do since I'm outside, and I can only have access to Internet after I reach home.

What I dream is a PDA phone which I can use to:

• make and receive calls, of course;
• access the Internet to browse websites or check e-mails; using either Wi-Fi (preferred) or GPRS;
• have basic Office capabilities (word processing, spreadsheet, power point); and
• have organiser function (similar to Outlook) to remind me of my appointments and to-do lists.

I stumbled upon this good website from CNET Asia, which gives good reviews about new PDA phones in the market. It says that the two most popular PDA phone in the market is O2 Xda Atom and Dopod 818 Pro. Now, the good question is, which one should I choose?

O2 Xda Atom is slightly more expensive, from a well-established brand in PDA phone market, slightly lighter, got Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS, FM radio, but using miniSD card which is quite expensive and not the standard. On the other hand, Dopod 818 Pro is slightly cheaper, from a "new kid" on the PDA-phone market, slightly heavier, also got Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS, but without FM radio, however, it uses normal SD card, which is the standard.

CNET Asia gave rating 8 to Dopod 818 Pro and 7.7 to O2 Xda Atom. However, the users only gave 5.6 rating to O2, while they gave 7.4 rating to Dopod. A lot of complaints from the users with regards to the O2 product, and some even switched from O2 Xda Atom to Dopod 818 Pro and they become happy customers. For those who have used both, they seem to prefer that Dopod 818 Pro is better than its competitor.

So, which one should I choose? I'm still considering and gathering more information about the reviews of the two products, so will let you know again later, which one I am going to choose. In the meantime, if you would like to give feedback to help me make my decision, just press the "add comments" button. :)

Update on 21 February 2006: I have made up my mind and have chosen Dopod over the Atom. Thanks. :)

Rumah Indra

As I have promised :) , I have created a new blog, which will be my diary in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). If you don't understand Bahasa, you might not want to visit it. The blog is titled "Rumah Indra" (which means "Indra's House" or "Indra's Home", depends on your interpretation), and is located at this URL: http://rumahindra.blogspot.com/ .

Why I kept on using blogspot.com and not using any other blog services available on the Internet?

Simple. I'm new to blog, even though I might have created a blogger account couple of years ago, but I was only actively blogging only in the past couple of weeks :) , so I'm still new to all the features a blog service might provide. I'm still trying to get used to the features on blogger.com/blogspot.com now, so will concentrate on here first.

So, how many blogs do I have? Why do I need to have so many blogs?

So far, these are the blogs that I have:

New Information: It's this blog. Previously it was just another section on my website containing all the new information related to me. I converted it to a blog and this becomes my main blog in English.

The Journey of Inka and Irza: This blog becomes my personal and family's "diary", containing all personal matters with regards to myself, my wife and my children. No "serious" or "formal" announcement will be posted here.

Rumah Indra: This blog is meant for my Indonesian friends (no matter where they are), since this blog will be in bahasa Indonesia. This will be a blog with mixed "more formal" and "personal" postings, in Indonesian language.

On top of that, I also maintain the gd508 blog, which is dedicated to my friends at Gunadarma University, year 1991, class 5-08. I'm also part of the maintainer team of the Bemo Live blog, which is dedicated to the BemoNet BBS community, and suka suka gue! blog, which I personally don't know what it is for, who created it and why someone put me on the maintainer team, hehehehe... :)

Change of website address and personal e-mail

Please kindly informed that my website address has been changed to:

http://indra.sg.or.id/

Even though, at the moment, you can still also access the same site from its old address:

http://indra.webvis.net/

Both domains are pointed to the same IP address, anyway. :)

I also have changed my personal e-mail address from indra@indra.webvis.net (old) to indra@sg.or.id (new).

Why the change? Simple! After the ccTLD-ID management is being handled by Depkominfo, registering an or.id domain is much easier. You can just apply any available domains under or.id, and upload your scanned Indonesian IC (both front and back) on JPG format during registration. Viola, your or.id domain application is approved. And the best part, it's free of charge. Of course, you will have to be an Indonesian and holding a valid Indonesian IC (identity card, or KTP - kartu tanda penduduk) to be eligible for an or.id domain.

The Journey of Inka and Irza

I have created a new blog, which will be used more for my personal and family's diary rather than this "more formal" one. Feel free to visit "The Journey of Inka and Irza" at this URL: http://inkairza.blogspot.com . With the existence of this new blog, I will no longer write about my personal and family's matter here. Feel free to visit the new blog should you like to find out more about my personal life and my family.

I also have a plan to create another blog, which will be in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). Stay tuned! :)

One of my best friends: Boyke Bader Brillianto a.k.a. Boyke will be getting married this coming 18 September. This is the invitation received by plakat-gd508 as well as by radnet-playgroup mailing list:




Boyke is one of my long best friends. He's my classmate at Gunadarma University when together we pursued the Bachelor Degree. He's also the one who recommended me to work at PT Rahajasa Media Internet (RADNET), where I started my career in the IT (particularly Internet) industry.

Congratulations Boyke!! Wish you all the best. :)

Happy New Year

Wishing all Muslims all around the world: a Happy New Year. Wishing all of you a great happy and prosperous new year ahead.

I've added some more pictures to the Photo Album section. Those include some pictures:

• when we attended Alif's birtday party, at uncle Arief's house in Lembah Pinus, Puri Cinere, Jakarta, Indonesia;
  
• when we celebrated Irza's second year birthday on August 2003 at Panorama Lembang, a small mountainous town north of Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Included are some pictures when we were inside the ArgoGede train on our way from Jakarta to Bandung, West Java, as well as when we were visiting the Tangkuban Parahu mountain, north of Lembang.
  
• when my parents (Inka and Irza's grandparents) visited us in Singapore on September 2003. We went to Clarke Quay and Jurong Bird Park;
  
• when we visited Singapore Zoological Garden, the only zoo in Singapore, which is reputed as the best zoo in South East Asia;
  
• when we attended Marsya's birthday party, at uncle Emil and aunty Nonong's house in Eunos, Singapore;
  
• when we went to Orchard Road, Singapore, during Christmas eve;
  
• when we went to Bishan Park, for a bit cycling and exercising;
  
• when we attended the Normanton Park Year End Party, hosted by the apartment's building management;
  
• we celebrated the New Year 2004 Countdown at Esplanade, Singapore, with fireworks display.
  
• when we visited IMM Building during Chinese New Year celebration;and
  
• when we went to East Coast Park, for swimming and cycling.
  

For those of you who didn't know, I have actually updated the Photo Album section to add the recent pictures we took in the past couple of months (November 2003 - January 2004). More pictures will follow. :)

My friend Harry just told me that now he's having 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy. Last time he told me he only had 3, now 4. Amazing. :)

Aiyah, just for a test first, lah. :)