The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has been actively promoting Taiwan’s world-class health examination and state-of- the-art aesthetic and cosmetic medical services. To prevent hospitals from lowering prices to compete for customers, since June 2013, MOHW together with the National Immigration Agency (NIA), the Tourism Bureau and local health authorities have been conducting stringent on-site inspections of medical institutes that apply for entry permit to Taiwan for the purpose health examination and aesthetic and cosmetic medical services for Chinese tourists. The inspection includes reviewing the service price list to determine if the price meets the lower margin of the price set by MOHW and if the price list has been approved by the local health bureau, reviewing service items offered at the facility, if the facility monitors the activity of the Chinese visitors during their stay in Taiwan, and if the facility has a management mechanism in place for cross-business partnership. In addition, MOHW has recently planned to establish a cross-sector inspection group targeting hospitals and institutes that have previously been found to have violated relevant regulations and those with an exceptionally high number of applicants applying for an entry permit to Taiwan. MOHW stresses that all violators will be penalized accordingly. 

According to the inspection results, MOHW announced the suspension of the rights of 8 hospitals to facilitate the Chinese tourist’s application for entry permit to Taiwan for health examination and aesthetic and cosmetic medical services because these hospitals were found to have committed violations. These 8 hospitals may apply with MOHW for re-evaluation after they have corrected the committed violations accordingly and have not allowed other Chinese tourists to overstay in Taiwan or commit criminal acts during the suspension period. Further, MOHW can only reinstate the hospital’s rights to apply for entry permit to Taiwan on behalf of Mainland Chinese after the hospital has been inspected for correcting the violation and MOHW will continue to closely monitor the hospital for any violations in the future. To prevent Mainland Chinese from entering Taiwan and doing illegal activities in the guise of visiting for the purpose of health examination and aesthetic and cosmetic medical services, MOHW has consulted with NIA several times to discuss the relevant response management plan and amended the “Regulations Governing Mainland Chinese Online Entry Permit Application to Taiwan for Health Examination and Aesthetic and Cosmetic Medical Services” in order to reinforce the inspection of the Chinese tourist’s financial statement and the mechanism for explaining the reason and purpose for multiple entry to Taiwan within a short period of time. The amended regulation, which was implemented beginning August 15, 2013, has drastically lowered the number of Chinese tourists from overstaying in Taiwan or committing illegal acts, which shows the effectiveness of this new policy at stopping Mainland Chinese from visiting Taiwan using forged identification documents and committing illegal acts. 

Nevertheless, recently, a number of Chinese tourists who visited Taiwan using the entry permit obtained for the purpose of health examination and aesthetic and cosmetic medical services by some hospitals for other purposes and those hospitals have been suspended of the rights to apply for such permit on behalf of Chinese tourists. Therefore, MOHW urges hospitals to carefully choose their partnering travel agencies and strengthen the co-management system to fulfill their liabilities.