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Legislators demand hardline approach on overpayments

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday demanded the Bureau of National Health Insurance take a firm stance on recovering overpayments made to medical institutions in 2004 and last year.

The bureau was scheduled to begin recovering the money yesterday, but has met with strong opposition from the medical fraternity since it announced the move on June 2.

The overpayment amounted to more than NT$10.6 billion (US$331 million), with NT$1.8 billion now owed by hospitals and NT$8.8 billion by clinics.

The Taiwan Medical Association has lobbied the bureau to postpone the collection procedure, allow institutions to return the funds in 24 monthly installments and exempt them from paying a planned 5 percent interest fee.

However, DPP legislators Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋) and Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) accused the bureau of discriminating against the public in favor of the medical fraternity.

Wang said that if members of the public failed to pay their insurance fees, the bureau would suspend payment of their medical expenses until the debt was settled, including interest ranging anywhere between 0.2 percent and 30 percent after just 16 days of non-payment.

"If ordinary people cannot pay their debts in interest-free installments, then why should the medical institutions be allowed to do so?" Wang asked at a press conference yesterday.

The legislators added that if the bureau exempted the medical institutions from paying interest, the taxpayers would have to cover the shortfall of NT$400 million.

Deputy chief director Huang San-kuei (黃三桂) said the bureau's policy on the matter remained unchanged and the medical organizations would be charged interest.

Huang said medical institutions would be given between six and 12 months to make the repayments. Only in special cases would payments be accepted over a 24-month period, he said.

He added that the bureau would not yield on the matter.

Although the Taiwan Medical Association made an announcement on its Web site that the bureau had agreed to delay its overpayment recovery plan by one month, Huang said he was unaware of any such agreement.

The bureau is to meet with the association today to discuss the matter.

Wang said that if the bureau made concessions to the association, he would propose cutting back its year-end staff bonuses in the next legislative session.
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