About 80 percent of reimbursements for advanced medical expenses in foreign countries between 2014 and last year were for procedures in China, National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) statistics showed.
NHIA Deputy Director-General Tsai Shu-ling (蔡淑鈴) said that the agency has reimbursed NT$201.41 million (US$6.7 million) for advanced medical expenses last year, with 63 percent of the cases in China.
Cases in Japan accounted for 7 percent, whereas those in Thailand and Vietnam each accounted for 5 percent.
The amount the NHIA has reimbursed for overseas advanced medical expenses has gradually decreased from NT$360 million in 2017 and NT$260 million in 2018 to NT$201.41 million last year, she said.
Meanwhile, 19 percent of reimbursements for outpatient care services in other countries were for acute upper respiratory tract infections, Tsai said, adding that it was followed by kidney failure and acute bronchitis, which accounted for 15 percent and 8 percent respectively.
Regarding reimbursements for emergency care services, 11 percent involved accidental injuries, 7 percent were for noninfectious gastroenteritis and colitis, and 6 percent were for acute bronchitis, she said.
For hospitalization reimbursements, 10 percent were for pneumonia, 6 percent for cerebral hemorrhage and 6 percent for accidental injuries.
“We have a database of these reimbursements, which includes data about the doctors, clinics and illnesses and other key information, which we can use when we closely examine any case, hospital, clinic and insured person,” Tsai said.
She added that this has helped the agency gradually lower overseas advanced medical expenses.
The NHIA has taken other measures to reduce overseas medical reimbursements, including by connecting the database with the immigration system and ensuring that it would only reimburse medical expenses for unexpected injuries.
Under Article 81 of the National Health Insurance Act (全民健保法), a person applying for reimbursements or medical expense claims through improper conduct, or by making a false certification, report or misrepresentation would be fined between two and 20 times the benefits or medical expenses received. If a criminal offense is involved, they would also be referred to the courts.
In related news, an investigation by Control Yuan member Chang Wu-shou (張武修) has found that a doctor in China produced false certificates of diagnosis for 54 people, which resulted in them claiming NT$260,000 in reimbursements.
In 2012, the Criminal Investigation Bureau investigated 28 Taiwanese tourists in Cambodia who used fake certificates of hospitalization to claim NT$410,000 in reimbursements, Chang said.
The fraud occurred with the collusion of a travel agency, which organized the tour, and an insurance company, Chang added.
The Control Yuan said it has asked the NHIA to adjust the way it manages reimbursement for advanced medical expenses in China.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-ling
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not