The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday said that 97 out of 111 hospitals that received more than NT$600 million (US$18.16 million) from the National Health Insurance (NHI) made a profit last year and it urged hospitals to improve the working conditions for physicians, nurses and other staff by increasing their salaries and other benefits.
NHIA official Chang wen-wen (張溫溫) said the 111 hospitals — 19 medical centers, 73 regional hospitals and 19 district hospitals — received a total of NT$313.5 billion from the NHI system, accounting for 86 percent of its funding to the nation’s 476 hospitals.
Hospital financial reports released by the agency yesterday show that Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) made the biggest overall profit with NT$2.87 billion, followed by NT$1.73 billion for China Medical University Hospital and NT$1.69 billion for National Taiwan University Hospital.
However, the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Chiayi reported the biggest loss — NT$771 million — followed by the hospital’s Keelung branch, which lost NT$109 million.
The hospitals that were the top three profit makers and those that were the two biggest losers were the same ones to hold those positions in 2013.
An analysis of the hospitals’ financial reports showed that if only considering revenue from medical affairs, 78 hospitals — or 70 percent of the total — made profit last year and 33 (30 percent) posted losses, but money earned from non-medical sources such as interest, rent, parking fees and food court dividends helped 19 hospitals post an overall profit, Chang said.
While all 19 medical centers made a profit, four of the 14 money-losing facilities were regional hospitals and 10 were district hospitals.
Although the majority of hospitals earned money last year, the reports showed that the percentages of expenditure on human resources by these hospitals (mostly between 44 and 48 percent) were slightly lower than the percentages in 2013, Chang said.
As the working conditions for hospitals’ medical staff have often been described as akin to “sweatshops,” Chang said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has repeatedly urged hospitals to use their profits to improve the salaries and benefits offered to healthcare practitioners.
She said the NHIA will discuss adjusting the NHI payments next year with the hospitals to allocate NT$5 billion for diagnostic, surgery and examination fees so that more of the extra revenue would go to healthcare practitioners.
Taiwan Health Reform Foundation vice chief executive Chu Hsieh-kuang (朱顯光) said that medical facilities rely on their staff to maintain quality and safety, but the reduction in expenditure on human resources last year showed that the quality of care and safety at these hospitals might have deteriorated.
The NHIA said it plans to publicize the financial report of hospitals that receive more than NT$400 million from the NHI system between next year and 2017 and to release the reports from hospitals that receive more than NT$200 million next year so that almost all the hospitals that receive NHI funding can be monitored by the public.
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