Reported by Liu Chia-Yun from Taipei

Last year, the NHI Drug Dispensing Items and Fee Schedule Joint Establishment Meeting made a decision to stop the reimbursement for 31 instruction drugs containing glucosamine by removing them from the NHI Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme.

The NHIA made an announcement on August 29 to confirm this new reimbursement regulation which is to take effect from October.  This change will save the NHI about NT$120 million every year.  The NHIA estimated that about 120,000 people will be affected.  However, such products are widely available on the OTC market. As the competition is tight, the room for a price hike is limited, said the NHIA.

According to the NHI Law, OTC drugs and instruction drugs shall not be covered by the NHI benefit scheme.  However, considering the public’s medication habit, the NHIA bended this rule when introducing the NHI system to the society.  As of last year, there were still 928 instruction drugs on the NHI Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, costing the NHI over NT$1.7 billion a year.    

This issue was on the NHIA’s meeting agenda last October.  The members made a conclusion to gradually remove instruction drugs from the NHI benefit scheme, starting from those with lower demands.

Dai Xuie-Yung of the NHIA expressed that the NHIA will soon issue an official letter to inform all NHI-contracted healthcare providers of the new reimbursement regulation as the MOHW has given the green light to this change.

Huang Zhou-Jei, a specialist of the NHIA, expressed that, based on the NHI data from January to June 2018, about 120,000 people were receiving NHI-reimbursed glucosamine.  The new reimbursement regulation will save the NHI about NT$120 million every year.

There have been concerns that the new regulation will spark a wave of price hike of products containing glucosamine.  Ke Dao-Min, a pharmacist, considered such concerns unfounded as there are many brands on the market for the patients to choose from.  Patients could try some local brands which perform as well as international brands, said Ke.

【2018-08-30 / United Daily News】