To increase the medical accessibility in Hualien and Taitung, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) endeavors to promote the recognition of virtual NHI cards in home care services, telemedicine, and remote consultations in local hospitals. The use of virtual NHI cards allows doctors to conduct consultations via video calls or other means of telemedicine and further improves the quality of healthcare.

From July to October 2023, the NHIA Eastern Division Office has organized three presentations for medical facilities that have successfully adopted the use of virtual NHI cards, including Mennonite Christian Hospital, Yuli Tzu Chi Hospital, Taitung Christian Hospital, Central Clinic, and Empowerment Home Care Center, to share their experiences. A total of 36 facilities have joined the preparatory program and 19 of them are now open to offer medical services to patients using a virtual NHI card; along with the 16 facilities that joined the program in 2022, there are now a total of 35 medical facilities that accommodate patients holding virtual NHI cards.

In Hualien and Taitung, relevant works of dissemination have been carried out to promote physical and virtual participation of accepting the use of virtual NHI cards in the fields of home care services, telemedicine, and remote consultations to urge more medical facilities to join the program. As of September 4, 2023, the number of people holding a virtual NHI card has increased by 4,967, with a total of 8,073. The number of times patients present a virtual NHI card when seeing a doctor is 1,634.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine and remote consultations have become widely accepted as a new way of making medical visits. In the past, doctors had to use physical NHI cards to access the patients' medical records on the NHI MediCloud System. However, with the establishment of virtual NHI cards, doctors in a remote consultation can access the records on the NHI MediCloud System by simply scanning the QR code that the patient presents or having the patient authorize the access on their phone, ensuring a higher healthcare quality and medication safety. 

Virtual NHI cards offer a more convenient medical visit model for people living in rural areas. With the NHI App on their phones, the insured can apply for a virtual NHI card and use it in any of the abovementioned 35 facilities in the area to obtain medical services. In a non-virtual scenario, patients who do not have a physical NHI card can simply present the QR code of their virtual NHI card on their phone. The virtual NHI card functions as a physical card, so the patient will not be asked to pay a deposit and return with their physical card afterwards. With the virtual and physical NHI card systems side by side, the quality and convenience of healthcare in Taiwan are further upgraded.