Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) Smart card as a key toreceive healthcare

[摘要] The implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in Taiwan has made the accessibility of Taiwan’s medical care wellknown throughout the world. The public has the freedom to go to any medical institution for medical care. Nevertheless, limitedcommunication regarding the patient’s medical information between medical institutions may cause medical negligence that mayotherwise be avoided. The NHI utilizes the NHI IC card as the ID card of medical care. the adoption of Health Smart Cards (HSC) in2004 as a means for the identification of patients, physicians and healthcare facilities, and medical affairs management systemsthat provide the DOH and local public-health agencies with a framework for managing medical, pharmaceutical, nursing and psychiatric rehabilitation institutions. The original design was to use it as a platform to keep track of all personal health informationand improve the continuance of medical care. The NHI IC card has been in use for 6 years, which has improved the efficiency ofinsurance declaration and reimbursement process and contributed significantly to the prevention of insurance fraud. However,no literatures have been published to discuss the accuracy and completeness of personal health information on the NHI IC card.