Thirty new medical services are now available to patients as part of the National Health Insurance scheme, including genetic cancer screenings able to detect seven different strains of cancer, after having been introduced Dec. 1, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said today.
The new services are to be awarded 123 million NHI points (1 point being approximately equal to NT$0.9 of funding) to benefit 66,000 patients annually, with an investment of NT$110 million (US$3.4 million), it said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The NHI is to award 5,000,000 NHI points to cover the Ozaki procedure for patients under the age of 18 with aortic valve disease, a new surgical procedure to reconstruct the aortic valve with a high recovery rate which reduces the need to repeat surgeries, which would benefit approximately 13 patients per year, NHIA Medical Affairs Division Director Chen Yi-chieh (陳依婕) said.
Moreover, patients are currently tested for prostate cancer with the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), known for its poor reliability, but the NHI will now offer the prostate-specific antigen isoform (p2PSA) test to an estimated 19,000 patients per year, which is more accurate, eliminates the need for invasive biopsies and reduces the risk of complications, Chen said.
The NHI is to also offer testing for the hepatitis B core related antigen (HBcrAg), a biomarker that indicates viral replication of hepatitis B, Chen said, with the new testing to reduce the high relapse-rate and risk of complications among patients with chronic hepatitis B who stop antiviral treatment, helping an estimated 34,000 patients per year.
From May this year, the NHI has offered next-generation sequencing (NGS), a DNA and RNA sequencing technology that screens for 12 types of cancer, and the NHI is to add a further seven genetic cancer screenings which are to help clinicians create personalized treatment plans for patients, helping approximately 10,000 cancer patients per year, the NHIA said.
As medical technology is continually developing, new medical treatments are to continue to be added and revised under the NHI budget, working together with medical experts and insurance plan holders to offer patients the latest medical technology, it said.
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