National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director General Lee Po-chang said that due to the limited growth parameters of the National Health Insurance (NHI) global budget, increasing spending in the treatment of an indication will inevitably take up resources for other indications. To maximize the value of limited NHI resources, the NHIA will implement adjustments to reimbursement rules and adjustments to the copayment system to improve patient access to new health technology and treatments while also mitigating impacts to NHI finances. The measures are driven by a need for the public to be more aware of the cost of their health care seeking behavior as well as the importance of conserving finite NHI resources and reducing wastage to allow authorities to add more new drugs, health technology and medical devices to the NHI fee schedule.

Regarding the budget evaluation on new medical technology, Department of Social Insurance Director Shang Tung-fu said that the mid-to-long term reforms being planned for the NHI include those aiming to improve the efficiency of how new treatments are added on the NHI fee schedule. As new drugs continue to be released, forward-looking methods, such as Horizon Scanning, must be adopted to gauge demand and effectiveness of new drugs. Therefore, since 2021, drug developers are encouraged to register their progress on new drug pipelines with the government under the Horizon Scanning method so that government can gain a clearer picture on the amount of funding to meet patients’ demand for new drugs and medical technology.

Taiwan Health Care Reform Foundation executive officer Lin Ya-hui said that the pace of NHI reforms must be quickened in accordance with the mid-to-long-term plans proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and that the goals should be achievable. Currently, as only a small portion of the global budget is determined through negotiations, the limited amount of funds must be used as efficiently as possible to allow for the addition of more treatments and new medical technology on the NHI fee schedule.

[2022-10-17/Up Media]