During the New Year's vacation from December 29, 2012 to January 1, 2013 and the Chinese New Year's vacation from February 9 to February 17, 2013, smart phone users have another new option besides the Internet if they need to search for National Health Insurance-related information. The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) introduces the "NHI Mobile App" that offers the most convenient mobile medical information search services around the clock, including weekends or long national holidays. You or your family can take advantage of the "Facility Search" feature under "NHI Easy Search" for any medical needs to find out the locations, registration fees, available services, doctor availability, and phone numbers of healthcare facilities.
For example, if you want to find an eye doctor, you can select "Ophthalmology" under "Medical Department and Division" and healthcare facilities that offer the service will pop up for you to choose from. For example, women who want to find out where they can go for a pap smear can select "Pap Smear for Women" under "Services" and healthcare facilities that offer the service will pop up for you to choose from. If your mobile phone has the "dial" feature, you can simply click on the "Phone Number" shown for a healthcare facility to get connected to the facility. It is very convenient. If you want to find out nearby hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies where you are, you can also search through this software.
The application offers healthcare professionals (or interested people) more pharmaceutical information, too. One can search for detailed information and prices of drugs prescribed by doctors through the "Medication Search" feature, detailed information, prices, and pictures of medical materials used by hospitals through the "Special Material Search," or whether the BNHI pays and how much it pays for a certain medical disposition through the "Payment Criteria Search" feature.
It also offers the "Second Generation NHI Supplementary Premium Estimation" feature to provide you with the most accurate calculations. With this APP, you can have your supplementary premium calculated at any time without delay around the clock. For example, when you enter NT$50,000 as the "Current Cash Awards", NT$150,000 as the "Accumulated Cash Awards" and NT$33,300 as the "Insured Amount", it will show immediately that you must pay the supplementary premium of NT$336.
The NHI Mobile App is known for its Top 9 features: "Second Generation NHI Supplementary Premium Estimation", "NHI Easy Search", "Mobile Drive-thru", "Second Generation NHI Q & A", "News Reporter", "Service Location", "Health Reminder", "Information Refill Station", and "Opinions & Feedback", which work on the iOS system for iPhones or iPads and the Android operating system. It is already commissioned for a trial. Download is completely free. You are welcome to take advantage of the app.
Figure 1. Home page of NHI Mobile App
Figure 2. Top 9 features of NHI Mobile App
Figure 3. Search for facilities by the medical department/division
Figure 4. Search for facilities by the service
Figure 5 Layout of search results
