The addition of two new categories eligible for National Health Insurance (NHI) payouts under Advance Care Planning (ACP), starting today, is expected to benefit 1.8 million people nationwide, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said yesterday.
Elderly people with severe injuries or illnesses, and elderly people with multiple chronic diseases who are eligible for the NHIA Integrated Family Doctor Care Program, or the NHIA Hospital Care Program, would be eligible for ACP payouts, NHIA Medical Affairs Division Director Chen Yi-chieh (陳依婕) said.
The requirement for people to sign advance decision forms to undergo ACP consultation, which costs NT$2,000 to NT$3,500, has been the main obstacle, resulting in only 103,000 people having signed them, representing less than 1 percent of all adults in Taiwan, the NHIA said.
Photo: Taipei Times
There were originally two methods of NHI payouts for ACP sessions: one was a one-time payout of 3,000 points, and the other was paying 1,500 points to those who had already undergone a palliative medicine family consultation, Chen said.
The payout method would change to one-time payouts of 3,000 points for all eligible people, Chen said.
Each NHI point is equivalent to NT$0.9.
Since the promulgation of the Patients’ Right to Autonomy Act (病人自主權利法) in 2019, Taiwanese can sign an advance decision form to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment, thereby opting for a dignified end of life.
Starting in July last year, the NHIA included ACP fees under a once per lifetime NHI payout for four categories of people, including people who fit the criteria as laid out under the Hospice Palliative Care Act (安寧緩和醫療條例), people with mild dementia, but can still function autonomously, people who fit the requirements of conditions that the Ministry of Health and Welfare deem “unbearable and incurable,” and those who are the target of the ministry’s Integrated Home Care Program.
However, the NHIA has the precondition that people sign the document while hospitalized.
As of the end of March, only 155 people across 51 hospitals have applied for the NHIA payout for ACP fees, NHIA statistics showed.
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