To Understand Second-Generation Smoking Cessation

Artical Writer : Lai Pei-Yun, Chang-hua County Reporter

Original Source: http://www.taiwan-pharma.org.tw/weekly/1761/1761-2-2.htm

Tanslator: Yu-Han Kao

“Dear pharmacist, I have preserve the OPD for quitting smoke next week because I heard the government offer subsidy for the group….”, a patient who once attended the activity of quitting smoke lest month but failed due to the gain weight shares the newest information and plans to attend the activity again.

Since this march 1 the government starts the revised quitting smoking plan, modifying the original method that offer the subsidy of 250 a week,500 for twice to the mode of the public health insurance partial burden ,meaning the patient has to pay 20 if the medical expense is more than 100,and the highest burden is 200.

Besides, they also prolong the restrict of the medicine offered every register from two weeks to for weeks and extensively include the quitting smoke group to those are OPD、hospitalized、and ER patients. All the efforts are to the only one purpose, that is, everyone can refuse the temptation of smoke and quit smoke thus makes the mutual beneficence to the individual and the others.

Meanwhile, everyone who attends the activity of quitting smoke can gain two courses of treatment, each of which offers subsidy eight weeks of the expense for the medicine. But it is not included the course for those are cross the year, meaning those who start new course of treatment after every November may bear a bit of lose of his beneficence. This welfare is not to track back to the past medical records and persist offers two courses of subsidy to medical expense.  

For example, although the aforementioned person who have ever joined this service subsidy program to quit smoking, there are still two opportunities for him this year, but before he has to pay 500 or 710 TW dollars per month for covering the price difference on the service of smoking cessation drugs. After the implementation of the second generation of smoking cessation, one can have his prescription for 4 weeks, and he only should pay 200 TW dollars for co-payment. He indeed saves a lot of money. However, for other people who originally do not need to pay money for the drug price difference, such as some smoking cessation patch or chewing tablets, may now have to pay for co-payment. Pharmacists have to pay attention not only on doing medicine educations for patients but also have to remember to charge co-payment.

For details, please visit Bureau of Health Promotion website “http://tobacco.bhp.doh.gov.tw/” or download the file of “the pilot program of second generation of smoking cessation” from TPIP pharmacy News service download area to get more detailed about related instructions and the amount of subsidies.