Taiwan Health Insurer Lifts Nursing and Surgery Fees

Global Insurance Desk: Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration has increased reimbursements for a range of critical hospital services including paediatric care, childbirth, inpatient nursing and several major surgical fields. The move aims to better recognise the work of healthcare staff and lift the overall quality of treatment available to patients.

Nursing and inpatient care received the biggest share of new funding at the equivalent of 67.3 million US dollars or 2.137 billion New Taiwan dollars. Fees for acute and special beds climb by 5% while those for chronic beds and chronic psychiatric beds rise by 10%. An extra allowance for acute general beds in remote areas jumps from 15% to 30%.

Obstetrics and gynaecology was allocated 55.7 million dollars or 1.77 billion New Taiwan dollars. Ordinary childbirth payments increase by 50%, high-risk obstetric surgery rates double and fees for difficult deliveries triple. Roughly 110,000 maternity patients are expected to benefit. Certain high-risk conditions such as amniotic fluid embolism will switch from the Diagnosis Related Group system to straightforward fee-for-service reimbursement.

Paediatric services gain 7.3 million dollars or 231 million New Taiwan dollars. This includes a 10% add-on for inpatient consultations by paediatric specialists treating patients under nineteen and higher payments for fifteen cardiac catheterisation and surgery items.

Neurosurgery receives 9.4 million dollars or 300 million New Taiwan dollars so that eleven central nervous system procedures are now paid in full rather than at half rate when they form a second operation through the same incision for multiple-trauma patients holding catastrophic illness certification.

Plastic surgery is given 9.1 million dollars or 290 million New Taiwan dollars, lifting burn treatment points from a previous range of 4,431 to 17,854 up to 10,319 to 33,916.

Gastrointestinal surgery gets 8.2 million dollars or 260 million New Taiwan dollars, raising twenty-one procedures to between 58,955 and 206,610 points.

Cancer-related colorectal surgery is allocated 6.9 million dollars or 220 million New Taiwan dollars with payment increases of between 15% and 218%.

Orthopaedics receives 2.2 million dollars or 70 million New Taiwan dollars and adds two newly covered procedures.

NHIA director general Lian-Yu Chen said further adjustments would follow the Healthy Taiwan policy and would take account of clinical practice and workforce requirements.