The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday announced three new policies taking effect this month: expanding National Health Insurance (NHI) medication coverage, increasing free vaccinations and adjusting hospital bed policies during flu season.
Starting this month, the NHI is expanding its drug coverage to include empagliflozin and dapagliflozin for people with chronic kidney disease and congestive heart failure, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
People with chronic kidney disease receiving these drugs are required to enroll in either the Early-Stage Chronic Kidney Disease Integrated Care Program or the NHI Pre-End-Stage Renal Disease Patient Care and Education Program, it said.
Photo: CNA
The new policy is estimated to benefit close to 170,000 people and cover about NT$1.6 billion (US$48.75 million) in medication fees, it added.
Starting on March 10, publicly funded pneumococcal vaccinations would be expanded to people aged 19 to 64 at high risk of invasive pneumococcal disease, the CDC said.
High-risk groups include “those with splenic dysfunction, immunodeficiency, cochlear implants or cerebrospinal fluid leakage, as well as people with malignant tumors or organ transplants recipients who have received immunosuppressive agents or radiation therapy within the past year,” it said.
Although the flu epidemic has improved over the past two weeks, it is still flu season and the number of people reporting flu-like symptoms remains high, it said.
To provide more space in hospitals for patients, the NHI Administration would allow medical institutions to use special hospital beds as general beds, it said.
This policy would ensure that medical resources are allocated more efficiently, it said.
Meanwhile, amid rising complaints about overcrowding at emergency rooms across the nation since the Lunar New Year holiday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) on Monday proposed five measures to address the problem, including instructing medical centers to improve inpatient bed allocation and strengthening coordination among regional hospitals.
At a news conference on Thursday after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) relayed that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had instructed the ministry to strictly implement the improvement measures.
Cho expressed hope that hospitals that have already implemented the improvement would continue to do so and that the measures would be expanded to other hospitals to enhance patient triage systems, Lee said.
Additional reporting by CNA
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS