Due to the onset of the pandemic, the number of patient visits to health care providers has dropped markedly. In response, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) raised three proposals, consisting of providing advanced payments to 95 percent of services rendered by health care providers; changing the timeframe of the tally of reimbursement claims from a yearly to quarterly basis; amending a regulation to enable the government to provide further funding to health care providers to make up for lost revenues as a result of the pandemic, limited to 80 percent of institution’s pre-pandemic figures. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said that the proposals are dependent on the Cabinet’s final approval. Regarding the timeframe of the assistance program, Minister Chen said that previous iterations of the NT$455 million aid package covered the period between January 2020 and August 2020, which has since been extended to November 2020.

NHIA data show that compared to 2019, inpatient stays in 2020 dropped by 2.7 percent, with medical centers seeing a 2.8 percent decline, regional hospitals declining by 3.5 percent and local hospitals lowering by 3.5 percent. Concurrently, Western medicine declined by 1.4 percent, dental clinics by 2.2 percent and Traditional Chinese medicine clinics dropping 3.2 percent.

For hospitals, the top three specialties that saw the steepest decline in patient visits in 2020 were pediatrics, which dropped 17.3 percent compared to 2019, followed by emergency care’s 13.2 percent and physical therapy’s 11.2 percent. Among clinics, declines were led by otorhinolaryngology at 25.6 percent, pediatrics at 20.1 percent and thoracic medicine at 11.3 percent.

By contrast, the top three hospital specialties that saw highest increase in patient visits were hematology and oncology at 5.9 percent, rheumatology and immunology at 2.9 percent, and cardiovascular medicine at 2.7 percent. As for clinics, the top three specialties that saw the highest growths in patient visits were endocrinology at 16.8 percent, psychiatry at 12.4 percent and cardiovascular medicine at 10.7 percent.

NHIA Director General Lee Po-chang specified that the proposal to help hospitals make up 80 percent of their pre-pandemic revenues requires an amendment of a law governing the special budget for COVID-19 relief, which a bill has been submitted for the Cabinet’s review and is awaiting a decision. Once approved by the Cabinet, the NT$455 million in funds could be distributed within a month.

[2021-3-18/United Daily News]