Taiwan Today

The National Health Insurance scheme will soon expand its coverage to include costs for the nonionic contrast medium used in positron emission topography scans. The new policy, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2010, will apply to patients suffering from any one of nine listed conditions. An estimated 770,000 patients per year are expected to benefit, with savings of NT$1,500 (US$47) per scan. According to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, 1.18 million patients underwent PET scans in 2008. Roughly 60 to 70 percent of these patients could have benefited from the use of a nonionic contrast medium, according to the Radiological Society of the Republic of China. But the policy of the NHI has been that it will only cover nonionic contrast medium costs for 10 percent of all patients undergoing PET scans. “Even though the NHI system has paid for nonionic contrast medium costs for some patients, we always hear the complaint: ‘Why is the nonionic contrast medium charge not covered?’” said Tsai Shu-ling, director of the Medical Affairs Section of the BNHI. In response to these complaints, the NHI has decided to include nonionic contrast medium charges in its coverage, a decision made easier now that costs have fallen, Tsai said. After holding meetings with the RSROC Dec. 1, the NHI decided that in the future it will pay for nonionic contrast medium charges for patients with nine different conditions. The criteria used to decide who will be eligible will be a little different than before. For instance, in the past all those suffering from sclerosis of the liver were eligible, but in the future only those with liver failure will qualify. And in the past patients had to be older than 72 to receive the nonionic contrast medium free of charge, whereas now they need to be more than 75. But the main difference is that the 10-percent limit will lifted. In the past, the BNHI paid hospitals NT$1,500 per nonionic contrast medium exam; now it will only pay NT$900. Patients not meeting the nine conditions can still use nonionic contrast medium during their exams, but will have to pay out of their own pocket whatever fees individual hospitals may charge. Liang Bo-qin, a doctor with the radiology department at the National Taiwan University Hospital, said that both nonionic contrast mediums and ionic contrast mediums have side effects, including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, a fall in blood pressure, strokes, difficulty breathing and heart arrhythmia. The possibility for heart arrhythmia is between one and two percent, he said. (HZW)