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Updated Saturday, October 3, 2009 11:12 am TWN, The China Post news staff

The fleecing of Taiwan's national medical system

Stories have often been told how patients waste resources by visiting big hospitals or medical centers for a minor cold that can be treated at small clinics in their neighborhoods. But in many other cases, patients do not make unnecessary visits to big hospitals on their own will. They may be told to do so by their doctors who are looking to milk more money from their patients and the national insurance program.

A recent controversy over the country's medical services focuses on how patients are required to make second visits to hospitals after having medical checkups. Many patients have reported that they have received checkups at hospitals and told to come back again some other time for the results. In many cases, these results should be available on the same day of the checkups, but doctors often have their nurses make appointments for the patients to return next time to discuss the results.

So until their next visit, patients continue to worry about their own health. They need to take a day off from work, and travel to the hospitals for the results. They have to pay the registration fees, plus co-payments again. They need to wait for their turns to see the doctors, exposing themselves to the risks of getting infected with some kind of disease while waiting at the hospital.

When they finally get to see the doctors, they are often briefly told that the results show everything is okay with their health, concluding discussions with their doctors that last no more than a few minutes.

The good news, of course, is that the patients are healthy. But the good news should have come earlier during their first visit.

One patient has even reported that when he returned for the second visit, he was told that his doctor was away on vacation, and he would have to come back for a third time, according to the United Daily News.

Doctors and hospitals have been accused of “double charging” by splitting one treatment into two.

There are reasons that doctors and hospitals have been practicing the trick. The registration fees and co-payments for the extra visits can be a major source of income. Hospitals can make claims for the extra, yet unnecessary, visits from the National Health Insurance program.

Doctors, many of whom are now paid on a performance basis, can boost their performance by making patients — healthy or unhealthy — return for a second time.

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