Reported by Chiu Zong-Hao
In order to encourage primary care clinics to join the hepatitis C prevention program, the NHIA made an announcement on the 12th to increase the cost ratio of new oral drugs for hepatitis C from 80% to 96% of the purchasing price. The NHIA expressed that this new policy will significantly reduce the clinics’ tax burden on the provision of hepatitis C treatments.
Clinics which prescribed new oral drugs for hepatitis C last year are eligible for this new policy in this tax year. It will also encourage clinics to sign up for the hepatitis C prevention program.
The WHO declared to eradicate hepatitis C from the world by 2025. To support the WHO’s declaration, the NHIA decided to relax the regulations on the reimbursement for the new oral drugs for hepatitis C and to remove the reimbursement condition that the drugs are only available for patients with at least stage 3 liver fibrosis. The NHIA expects that more patients will receive treatments from community clinics, and hopes there will be more clinics to join the prevention program.
The new oral drugs for hepatitis C have become available under the NHI since 2017; however, the primary care clinics are not very keen on the new treatments. For example, in 2017, there were 377 clinics taking part in the “Program of Improved Reimbursement for NHI-reimbursed Treatments for Hepatitis B and C”; however, only 85 of them provided treatments for hepatitis C.
Some clinics explained that the new drugs for hepatitis C are expensive, for example, the NHI reimbursement price was NT$250,000 for one treatment course in 2017 and 2018. However, under the original tax regulations, clinics can only list 80% of the purchasing price as cost, i.e. NT$200,000 per treatment course. This means that the clinics face a financial loss for treating hepatitis C patients.
Therefore, the MOHW issued an official letter to the Ministry of Finance to ask for an adjustment of the ratio. Legislators also requested that the MOHW should address this issue. The negotiation came to a successful end. The MOHW made an announcement on the 12th to increase the cost ratio from 80% to 96% of the price of the hepatitis C drugs obtained via the “Program of Improved Reimbursement for NHI-reimbursed Treatments for Hepatitis B and C”.
【2019-04-23 / Commercial Times】
