he current push to implement the patient referral system is a step in the right direction in the reforming of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system. In the long-term, the change is expected to help lower the number of patients with minor ailments flocking to hospitals and crowding out patients with serious conditions. The change will also help ease the pressure on overworked medical personnel. Much like President Tsai’s efforts at reforming Taiwan’s public sector pensions, the progress towards change must remain steadfast.
The National Health Insurance Administration published its latest survey, which found that public approval of the state-run healthcare system has been steadily rising in the past three years, reaching a high record of 89.7 percent this year.
The primary reasons for the high regard of the National Health Insurance system are excellent accessibility, reasonable healthcare prices and households’ relative ease in shouldering healthcare expenses.
The study also showed that 85.3 percent of respondents support the implementation of a patient referral system, which encourages patients to first seek diagnosis at smaller clinics and be referred to larger hospitals on an as-needed basis. However, 70 percent of the respondents believe that hospitals are more capable and are better equipped than clinics, and 50.6 percent of respondents acknowledged that they do not have the capacity to determine the severity of their conditions.
However, data analytics show that some hospitals have been changing patients’ status from “stable” to “unstable” or outright classifying some patients as suffering from catastrophic conditions to skirt regulations. I have written letters in my personal capacity to hospitals urging for timely uploads of accurate patient data to the cloud to help authorities combat false filings and fraud. These data will be provided to hospital presidents to help improve self-regulation.
In addition, most physicians do not understand the Drug Expenditure Target and are not aware drug price cuts are triggered once the expenditure target has been reached, or the fact that unnecessary prescriptions indirectly impact drug prices and drug companies’ willingness to participate in the Taiwan market.
【2019-12-09 / United Daily News】
