June 2010

The new incentive program for health care providers

The Ministry of Health and Welfare(MOHW) said that the new incentive program for health care providers will be enforced on October 1st.

This program is giving incentives to medical providers who buy drugs at lower prices than the listing prices.

The government hope that this program will encourage the transparency in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries and help reducing the drug cost rate of the national health insurance finance.

The government expect about 5% drug price cut every year owing to the new program.

The price cuts will be applied to the drugs of which purchase contracts are made after September 30, 2010.

The MOHW is preparing computer software program which is used for health providers to charge the incentives.

This software program will be provided to every health providers by late September.

But still, many pharmaceutical companies and health providers are skeptical about the effectiveness of this program.