Government Extends Subsidy To Home Medical And Home Nursing

22 Sep 2002

From 1 October 2002, the Ministry of Health will be extending government subsidy to eligible elderly Singaporeans who require home care services. This will enable elderly who meet medical/nursing and financial criteria for home care services, such as home medical and home nursing, to benefit from home visits by a doctor or nurse at a lower cost.

MOH targets to fund 50% of the elderly population requiring home care services. This will mean an injection of funds of $3.8 million each year. With the subsidy, more of the elderly who prefer to stay in the community and be with their family when they grow old and frail can do so. This is in line with MOH philosophy that an elderly person should stay in the community for as long as possible and institutionalisation should only be a measure of last resort.

With the introduction of ElderShield and IDAPE, which provide cash payouts to the elderly with 3 or more severe disabilities, the cash received from these two schemes would assist the elderly in the payment for such home care services.

Based on the 1999 Report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Health Care for the Elderly, about 3,500 elderly will require home nursing visits and 1,200 elderly require home medical visits per month. Annually, 14,000 home medical visits and 84,000 for home nursing visits will be required.

Currently, only about 46,000 home nursing visits and 2,000 home medical visits are provided by the Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs). This is an under-provision as VWOs only provide 55% of home nursing and 14% of home medical needs. Home Nursing Foundation is the largest provider providing 86% of home nursing visits.

Government Subsidy for Low !V Income Singaporeans

MOH will be providing subsidy to the elderly who are homebound due to disabilities. Subsidy for home care services will be provided for elderly who meets the income criteria determined by means testing as below:

Please click here to see table.

The above is an extension of the current three-tier subsidy framework for step-down care facilities. With the inclusion of home care services, this effectively means that all step-down care services under MOH will be given subsidies for patients who qualify under the means testing criteria.

Who can qualify for home care subsidy

Apart from meeting the financial criteria, elderly must also meet the following criteria:

- Homebound with disabilities requiring medical or nursing care after stroke, head injury, spinal injury and terminal illness.

- Certification by registered medical practitioner on the need for home medical and/or home nursing care.

- Re-certification for continuation with the service !V every 6 months for home nursing and annually for home medical.

Providers of Home Care Services

There are 9 service providers providing home medical services and 11 providing for home nursing services (Annex 1, Table 1). A list of home medical and home nursing care providers is at Annex 2.

Integrated Healthcare

Together with Government safety nets such as Medisave, MediShield and MediFund, needy Singaporeans will now able to receive further subsidy for step-down care at home. Government schemes such as ElderShield and IDAPE will also provide cash payouts for the elderly to cope with expenses arising from home care medical or nursing needs.