The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) yesterday warned that hospitals and doctors caught cheating the system could be permanently blacklisted and barred from working with the bureau.
Patients who abuse the system also risk having their insurance card revoked, bureau Director-General Cheng Shou-hsia (鄭守夏) said.
The current protocol only imposes a one-year moratorium as the maximum penalty for medical institution heads, individual doctors and pharmacists found guilty of overbilling the bureau.
Many offenders, however, simply change their names to avoid suspension, Cheng told a press conference.
The cash-strapped bureau is hoping more stringent measures will help alleviate the mounting pressure of its NT$58.8 billion (US$1.85 billion) debt, while ensuring the public’s right to high-quality health care, he said.
The bureau estimates the debt could exceed NT$100 billion by the end of the year.
“The foremost task at the moment is to stabilize the BNHI’s finances. It will take the dedication and support of the entire country to save the healthcare system from total bankruptcy,” he said.
The bureau also promised to crack down on patients who abuse the system, including the 3,500 people who made more than 100 doctor’s visits in one year.
“We will use tougher methods such as deactivating their cards to discourage them from making excessive and unnecessary visits to the doctor,” Cheng said, but added that “patients with severe illnesses would be exempt from this.”
Other ideas to reduce bureau expenditure include encouraging chronically ill patients to present their prescription to any new doctor they visit to avoid overlapping.
Healthcare workers are also urged to educate patients on the proper way to take medication and how to self-manage minor discomfort at home.
Cheng said despite the recent resignation of Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良), the bureau has submitted several preliminary versions of the DOH’s proposed premium hike plan to the Executive Yuan.
Yaung has been on leave since sumitting his resignation on Monday, but promised to meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Wednesday for a briefing session.
He has declined Ma’s and Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) repeated invitations to stay on.
Cheng said the DOH was still crunching the numbers to come up with a plan where a minimal number of people would be affected by a proposed premium increase. Yaung has likened the proposed increase to the cost of a lunchbox.
“If the premium and the scope of insurance coverage remain unchanged, the bureau will surely falter,” Yaung has warned.
Based on the DOH’s original proposal, at least 40 percent of those insured must pay between NT$70 and NT$80 more each month to save the 15-year-old bureau from insolvency, a far cry from Wu’s request that 75 percent of the insured be exempt.
The bureau has been criticized for milking taxpayers to plug its financial hole yet taking a passive stance on Taipei City, which owes NT$37.4 billion.
Cheng said the criticism was “unfair” because since Yaung took office seven months ago, the minister has discussed the issue with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) several times and both sides are trying to come up with a viable solution.
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