People in the habit of frequently going to hospitals for outpatient services will be prevented from wasting healthcare resources under proposed measures to tackle abuse of the system, a health official said.
Starting on Tuesday, people who visit hospitals for outpatient services more than 100 times a year will have their health insurance cards “locked,” said Chu Tong-kuang (曲同光), a deputy convener of a task force on National Health Insurance (NHI) affairs.
This means that frequent hospital visitors will be targeted for an assistance program, under which they will be required to seek medical treatment at designated hospitals to better keep track of how often they visit the doctor, Chu said.
The measure is part of a new set of initiatives by the Department of Health (DOH) to stem and control increasing expenditures in the NHI system.
While the system gives people access to affordable healthcare, it is deep in debt, partly because of misuse by enrolled members. People in the system pay no more than US$15 for each doctor’s visit, regardless of the number of medical tests they receive.
Last year, 3,500 people each had more than 100 hospital visits that year, while 382 people went to hospitals more than 200 times.
While some of these people may suffer from chronic illnesses, the frequency of their hospital visits is considered excessive.
Other measures to counter problems in the healthcare system include banning physicians found to be habitual offenders of NHI regulations from serving as contract doctors for the system.
The DOH also plans to raise the ratio of hospital beds reserved for NHI patients to the total number of hospital beds in Taiwan. Under the new proposal, the number of NHI-covered beds at public hospitals must reach at least 75 percent, while at non-public hospitals it must be over 60 percent.
Chu said many hospitals have expressed difficulty in carrying out these percentages.
The DOH will hold a meeting in the near future so the public can voice their opinion about the new measures before they are put into effect, Chu said.
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