Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ20: Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme
Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by
the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative
Council today (May 8):
Question:
Recently, some elderly persons have relayed to me that the private clinics
which they had been attending for medical consultation have withdrawn from
the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (the Scheme), rendering them unable
to benefit from the Scheme when attending those clinics. In this
connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of clinics which joined and withdrew from
the Scheme each year since its implementation (broken down by type of
healthcare profession);
(b) of the current number of private clinics in the territory which have
not joined the Scheme;
(c) of the current average and the longest time taken for reimbursement of
health care vouchers to the clinics participating in the Scheme;
(d) whether the authorities will streamline the administrative procedures
that service providers have to deal with and shorten the time required for
reimbursement of health care vouchers, so as to attract more service
providers to join the Scheme; and
(e) given that, in reply to a question of this Council on the 2013-2014
Estimates of Expenditure, the authorities have indicated that to encourage
the participation of service providers, they "have issued letters to
service providers, private hospitals and medical organisations informing
them of the latest increase in annual voucher value as well as conducting
briefings to service providers where appropriate", of (i) the number of
letters issued to those service providers which have not yet joined the
Scheme, as well as (ii) the number of briefings conducted last year and
(iii) the number of briefings to be conducted next year for them?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che is as follows:
(a) As at the end of 2012, a total of 3 627 qualified healthcare service
providers had enrolled in the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (the
Scheme), involving 4 945 places of practice (as a service provider can
register more than one place of practice for accepting use of Health Care
Vouchers). The number of enrolled healthcare service providers and their
places of practice broken down by healthcare professions are at Appendix
A.
As at the end of 2012, 336 enrolled healthcare service providers withdrew
from the Scheme. The number of service providers withdrawn from the Scheme
broken down by year and healthcare professions is at Appendix B.
(b) The Department of Health (DH) does not have information concerning the
number of private clinics in Hong Kong. Hence, we do not have the number
of private clinics which have not participated in the Scheme.
(c) Under the current arrangements, DH will reimburse enrolled healthcare
service providers or associated organisations of their voucher claims
within 30 days after the last date of each month.
(d) To facilitate utilisation of vouchers by elders and service providers,
the Government has adopted appropriate measures to streamline procedures
of making voucher claims. For instance, Smart Identity Card Reader was
introduced in 2010 to shorten the time for inputting information of elders
to the eHealth System and to reduce errors. We will continue to review and
enhance the eHealth System on a regular basis, having regard to the views
of enrolled service providers and other stakeholders.
(e) In December 2012, DH wrote to participating healthcare service
providers, informing them of the increase of the voucher amount to $1,000
starting from 2013 and other enhancement measures. As for service
providers which have not enrolled in the Scheme, DH has informed them of
the latest development of the Scheme and encouraged their participation
through relevant professional bodies.
Since the Scheme launch in 2009, DH has been promoting and explaining the
Scheme to healthcare professionals through the large scale annual briefing
sessions of Vaccination Schemes. Moreover, DH has taken the initiative to
visit clinics and places of practice of service providers in individual
districts, urging them to participate in the Scheme and encouraging elders
to use the vouchers. DH will, in collaboration with various stakeholders,
continue to introduce the Scheme to service providers of all relevant
healthcare professions, for examples, promoting the Scheme in the latest
Newsletter from the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board of the Chinese
Medicine Council of Hong Kong and at the briefing sessions organised for
medical practitioners providing primary care services.
Ends/Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:25
NNNN
LCQ20 Appendix