Legislators yesterday questioned Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) over how the department would prevent medical fraud such as that committed by a former doctor at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH).
The minister said he could not guarantee fraud would not happen again in future, as members of the legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee questioned him about the insurance fraud case that the department made public on Monday.
The DOH on Monday slapped the hospital with a NT$150 million (US$4.8 million) fine, the highest on record, after uncovering a case in which one of the hospital's former gynecologists, Hsu Shih-cheng (許世正), removed healthy organs from patients to claim insurance compensation.
While commending Yaung for his handling of the matter, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) demanded to know whether the department could prevent similar incidents from happening.
Yaung said he could not make any guarantee, saying: “No matter how many police officers we have, there will always be burglars.”
While many present burst into laughter, other lawmakers were not amused, saying that Yaung's latest controversial remark was just another “phrase of the day.”
Including Hsu, seven doctors from 10 hospitals are under investigation or have been charged with insurance fraud.
The former gynecologist allegedly performed operations to remove healthy organs from women and gave them chemotherapy to help them fraudulently obtain tens of millions of dollars in payments from various insurance firms.
He also allegedly defrauded the National Health Insurance system out of NT$500,000 in the process.
The hospital has said that the crimes were the result of Hsu’s personal actions and did not involve other doctors at the hospital, adding that it would seek an administrative remedy for what it called an “unfair” punishment.
In related news, the DOH said yesterday that in two years low-dose vitamins would be regulated as food rather than drugs, which may indirectly cause the price of such vitamins to increase by as much as 30 percent.
Currently, low-dose vitamins are regulated as both drugs and food, which causes confusion and has long been an issue of concern among legislators. High-dose vitamins are regulated as drugs, which means distributors must obtain drug permit licenses and are allowed to advertise medicinal benefits.
However, because a 30 percent tariff would be imposed on imported low-dose vitamins once the new regulations came into effect, retail prices would inevitably rise. Yaung said that the DOH could not do anything about pricing.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
RSS