Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme HK

Hong Kong Health Care Voucher – Where to Get it, the Benefits, and the Health Care Providers in HK

The Health Care Voucher Scheme (HCVS) is available to Hong Kong elders aged 65 or above who hold a valid Hong Kong Identity Card (HKID).

• Elders aged 65 or above as the voucher recipients, the benefits of the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme to them include:

• Each eligible elder person may use a voucher of up to an amount of HK$2,000 per year.

• They do not have to pre-register.

• They do not have to pre-collect the health care vouchers.

• They do not have to carry the health care vouchers (to any medical care providers).

• They may freely choose any private primary health care services in their local communities.

The objective of the voucher scheme is to encourage HK elder citizens to receive good health care services from professional doctors, and licensed medical professionals, when they need them.

The scheme was first launched on 1 January 2009 as a pilot scheme. In the first three years, it was tested as a concept to enhance the provision of primary care service for the elderly citizens.

How the Health Care Vouchers Should Be Used? And Should Not Be Used?

The health care vouchers should be used for services provided by:

• Medical practitioners

• Chinese medicine practitioners

• Dentists

• Chiropractors

• Registered nurses and enrolled nurses

• Physiotherapists

• Occupational therapists

• Radiographers

• Medical laboratory technologists

• Optometrists

• Preventive care, curative, or rehabilitative services

• Accident & Emergency (A&E) services provided by private hospitals if the A&E services belong to out-patient services

To avoiding double subsidizing, the vouchers cannot be used for public services or those directly subsidized by the Government.

But the vouchers can be used on healthcare services provided by charitable organizations, non-profit making organizations or other non-government organizations as long as double subsidizing does not happen.

Elders should not use the vouchers for:

• Only purchasing products such as medication, spectacles, dried seafood or medical equipment

• Public healthcare services subsidized by the government (including healthcare services which the Hospital Authority purchases from the private sector such as the General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership Programme)

• Inpatient services, pre-paid healthcare services, or day surgery procedures, such as cataract surgery or endoscopy services

• Settling the fees of healthcare services provided by service providers who have not enrolled in the Scheme

Restrictions and the Unspent Amount

An elder citizen's unspent voucher amount can be carried forward to the following years. There is no restriction on the number of years that an elder may carry forward the unspent voucher amount, but a total amount of HK$ 8,000 can be carried forward and accumulated for per elder citizen.

When using the vouchers, the elder persons must understand the following:

• The quota of vouchers which can be spent by each eligible elder citizen on optometry services is capped at $2,000 per every two years.

• There is no limit on the voucher amount that can be used each time for receiving health care service. But the total voucher amount used by an elder citizen to settle the fee for healthcare service received should not exceed the amount of fee for such service.

• When an elder citizen has used vouchers to settle the service fees of an enrolled healthcare service provider, the voucher amount concerned will be reimbursed to the healthcare service provider in arrears on a monthly basis.

• No advance of voucher amount which is yet to be issued is allowed.

• The voucher cannot be redeemed for cash, transferred to another person, or shared with another person.

Health Care Voucher Providers of Service

Health Care Voucher service providers who wish to participate in the Health Care Voucher Scheme (HCVS) should enroll with the Department of Health in advance.

Providers who have successfully enrolled in the HCVS will be issued with the Scheme Logo for display outside their practices for identification.

Providers are given a username, a personal password and a security token for accessing the eHealth System.

The One-off $1,000 Worth of Voucher

When an elder reaches the age of 65 in 2018 (i.e. who born in 1953 or before) but has not created a voucher account on or before 26 June 2019, as long as he/she meets the conditions below, elder citizen would receive the entitled voucher amount including the additional HK$1,000 for each of the two years (i.e. 2018 and 2019), upon account creation.

• The elder aged 65 or above in 2018 who must hold a valid Hong Kong Identity Card or Certificate of Exemption issued by the Immigration Department.

• The exception is those who obtained a Hong Kong Identity Card by virtue of a previous permission to land or remain in Hong Kong granted to him/ her and such permission has expired or ceased to be valid