Chang Gung Memorial Hospital has yet to pay fines imposed for overcharging its doctors for health insurance fees. The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) said the hospital had until Thursday to pay the fines or face further action.
Chang Gung’s Linkou branch in June was reported to have overcharged doctors for their health insurance premiums. The hospital charged each doctor the full insurance premium of about NT$6,000 (US$190) per month, rather than the NT$1,800 that a doctor would normally pay as a hospital employee.
The hospital said that the practice was justified because the doctors were in partnership with the hospital owners and therefore liable for the full amount of the premium.
The BNHI investigation found that since the hospital and its doctors had a management-employee relationship — rather than a partnership — the hospital could not ask the doctors to pay the full premium.
After news of the violations at the Linkou branch emerged, other hospitals were investigated, including other Chang Gung branches. The BNHI last month issued seven fines to Chang Gung branches totaling about NT$400 million.
Officials said Chang Gung had yet to pay the fines and that it had until Thursday to do so or the bureau would be forced to take further action.
According to the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法), in addition to returning the amount overcharged to its doctors, the hospitals also face a fine twice that amount said Deng Shih-hui (鄧世輝), a section chief at the bureau.
Deng said no leniency was shown because the hospitals were fully aware they were not in a partnership relationship with the doctors. The fact that they provided two versions of financial information — one to the BNHI to avoid having to pay the doctors’ NHI premiums and another to the National Tax Administration to indicate that the same doctors were hospital employees — proved they knowingly committed a violation, the bureau said.
Chang Gung did not respond to requests for comment.
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