Govt Moves To Cap 'exorbitant' Eyecare Claims

The government is hoping to cap the amount of money elderly people can spend on optometry services using medical vouchers, after it became concerned about the number of expensive claims being put in.

Government data showed that last year, HK$760 million was paid to 700 optometrists in the city – whose services include primary eyecare and sales of spectacles – under a medical voucher scheme.

Under the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme, people aged 65 and above are given HK$2,000 a year to spend on various medical services. They're allowed to accumulate up to HK$5,000 in total.

But there were more than 26,000 claims worth more than HK$4,000 each from the eye specialists in the second half of last year.

About 30 percent of the total of HK$2.8 billion paid under the scheme last year went to optometrists.

In a paper submitted to Legco on Monday, the government proposed a limit of HK$2,000 every two years in light of "a disproportionate number of claims with exceptionally high amounts made by optometrists".

Announcing details of the proposal at a press conference, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said if the elderly spend too much money on one kind of service, it would limit their funds for other medical services they may need.

“We are not stigmatising any profession. But then the reason for capping is because we observed and noticed in our review that there is an irregular use and over-concentrating on one of the services,” she said.

Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki said he supports the plan to limit the amount of this money that can be used on optical services, saying anyone who has serious eye problems could still turn to a doctor for help.

Kwok said that in addition to the spending limit, the government also needs to target abuse of the system.

On Monday, a group of optometrists said a survey they had conducted showed that more than 95 percent of elderly people opposed the plan.

The Hong Kong Association of Private Practice Optometrists said it polled 300 elderly people and more than half said they would not pay out of their own pocket for an eye test.