A total of 205 hospitals or clinics in Taipei increased their registration fee last year, most of them between NT$200 and NT$300 per outpatient visit, Taipei Department of Health data showed.
EBC News on Thursday last week reported that many clinics across the country announced that they would be raising their registration fee by NT$50 after the Lunar New Year holiday, making the cost of an outpatient visit NT$250 to NT$300.
Data from the six special municipalities’ health departments showed that 375 clinics had raised their registration fee over the past year, including 156 clinics in Taipei, ECB News reported.
Photo courtesy of Tainan Municipal Hospital
Under the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s regulations, healthcare facilities that plan to raise their registration fee for outpatient visits to more than NT$150 must report the move to the local health department.
Taipei Department of Health data showed that 205 hospitals and clinics had reported raising their outpatient registration fee over the past year, 94 of which raised their fee between Jan. 1 and Feb. 7.
The majority raised registration fees to NT$200 to NT$300, but the registration fees at 18 healthcare facilities were raised to more than NT$500, with the highest being NT$2,500.
Hospitals or clinics might raise their outpatient registration fee due to increases in rent, water, electricity, personnel and administrative costs, the department said, adding that some might also hike their fee to make up for a shortage of income from National Health Insurance (NHI) payments.
Taiwan Primary Care Association president Lin Yung-zen (林應然), who operates a clinic in Taipei, on Friday said that many of his peers are raising their outpatient registration fee to NT$200.
As prices and personnel costs are increasing, and NHI payments for medical services have not been raised in many years, with NHI payment points for medical services even being cut at times, the registration fee hikes are an inevitable trend, he said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS