NO PHOTOGRAPH: The cousin’s medical bills totaled about NT$900,000, and was the biggest single case of fraudulent use of an NHI card, the NHI director-general said

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 30, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

A Chinese woman married to a Taiwanese man was found to have illegally lent her National Health Insurance (NHI) card to her cousin so that she could undergo NHI-funded cancer treatment in Taiwan, the National Health Insurance Administration said yesterday.

The cousin, who was in Taiwan illegally, used the card to receive stomach cancer treatment from March 2016 until she died in November that year, NHI Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said.

The patient used the card to consult a doctor, and to cover hospitalization and surgery costs at a medical center, which totaled about NT$900,000 (US$28,937 at the current exchange rate), he said.

It was the biggest single amount in any NHI card fraud case, and it was not revealed until the hospital was about to issue a death certificate in the cardholder’s name that she confessed to loaning the card to her cousin, Lee said.    [FULL  STORY]