Only a few of the cases of integrated chip (IC) card fraud discovered by the National Health Insurance Bureau (NHIB) are being investigated, according to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋).
The legislator yesterday held a press conference to question alleged irregularities taking place in the nation's health insurance system.
According to Wang, out of the 22,492 hospitals and clinics across the country, which are covered by the national health insurance system, incidences of IC card fraud have been found in 544 institutions, amounting to costs of over NT$200 million.
Wang questioned why only 169 cases had been investigated and only 20 will undergo court proceedings.
Wu Wen-wei (吳文偉) head of the audit department of the Bureau of National Health Insurance explained the bureau's criteria for determining irregularities.
"An institution is considered as having irregular proceedings if repeated swiping of National Insurance cards are found over a short period of time in over 5 percent of cases," Wu said.
Asked why only 169 of the 544 irregularities discovered had been investigated, Wu said that only the most serious cases were investigated, those being worth looking into.
"Each case takes three to five days to investigate, which is very time consuming, especially as we want to solve this problem in two or three months," Wu said.
Wu added that the remaining 544 cases that hadn't been investigated had been notified that their proceedings were thought to be irregular and those involved would hopefully come forward to explain the cause of the problems.
Of the 169 cases that have been investigated by the bureau, penalties included the reduction of expenses, being put on record as having violated bureau laws and termination of services for between one and three months.
Wang asked what criteria was used to assess whether a case of a clinic or hospital abusing the national health insurance system should be passed on to the legal system.
In response, Wu said, "It is to do with the seriousness of the offense, such as whether the institution repeatedly commits these offenses."
"`Seriousness,' `repeatedly,' are all descriptive words," Wang said. "We want to know what specific laws apply for legal procedures to take place."
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