I have intermediate knowledge in Chinese and I need to contact a doctor to help treat my athlete feet. The wounds won’t heal and has only gotten worse even after careful treatment every day for over 1 month.
Thus, I would need to see a doctor but I do not know where to go or how much this doctors visit would approximately cost me. I am not part of of the NHI and have no other insurance at the moment.
My questions are:
Where would people here recommend me to go? (i live near Nanjing Fuxing station but can travel wherever)
How much would this cost me to have a initial visit? I mean are we talking about several tens of thousands of NT$ or less when not being part of NHI?
Would suggest going to see a dermatologist at TMUH, Cathay General, or Mackay (I’d put them in that order, personally, based on ease of booking/registration, typical English ability and English information on their website, and general convenience, but all are fine, as are most other hospitals).
I wouldn’t worry about the cost as it should be negligible even without NHI. You’re probably looking at around NT$500-550 for the basic consultation (including hospital registration, etc.), plus maybe an extra NT$100-200, if that, for whatever generic antifungal cream they’re going to give you. (Could be more if there’s some weird expensive medicine or whatever, but I doubt it from what you wrote, and you can always ask the doctor the fees during the appointment if you want.) Just make sure you don’t go to any of the international priority centers (e.g., at Adventist or TMUH) unless you want to be charged accordingly.
So should be a pretty easy problem to solve - hospitals are quite decent and very reasonably priced here, even without NHI.
It’ll be a few hundred. Not more than 1k. You don’t even need a fancy hospital and their long waits. Any doctor could treat a simple matter like Hong Kong foot. There’s probably one a stone’s throw away from where you live. They’re as ubiquitous as convenience stores.
IMO $500 as a registration fee is pretty high. It used to be around $200 or so but I think NHI has been increasing it to try to discourage people from going there to waste time.
A.lot of the smaller regional hospitals are still $100nt fee to register
True, that’s why I said “basic consultation (including hospital registration, etc.)” - I was referring to the doctor’s consultation fee and hospital registration fee and whatever else you need to pay for a minimum visit.
I don’t think Adventist is a good option without NHI. Unless I’m misreading it, their website seems to imply that patients without NHI have to be treated under the fee schedule of their International Priority Care Center (i.e., OP is getting gouged):
If you were not a citizen of the Republic of China (Taiwan), or a foreigner without the resident certificate , your medical bill will be charged as the standard fee schedule in the International Priority Care Center (IPCC).
If this is correct, it would make Adventist probably the worst option. I don’t know of any other hospital in Taipei that has this policy, and I avoided it a couple of times when I didn’t have NHI for this reason.
Did you actually register and go there without NHI, or are you referring to specific procedures and medicines not covered by NHI? Those are two different cases.
I’ve always had NHI when registering. I’m talking about procedures not covered by NHI. I’d still be surprised if you couldn’t do a regular registration without NHI.
Most areas have several family clinics/GPs where you can just walk in.
Do a google maps search for “clinic” in your area and check the reviews. Often you will see reviews in English from other foreigners, so you’ll have an idea of how well they deal with non-locals.
With these clinics, you just walk in, when the receptionist asks for your NHI card, tell them you don’t have and you want to 自費 (self-pay), and they will register you (there might be a form to fill in, which they can usually help you with if you can’t understand the chinese).
If you don’t have an ID card, take your passport.
The doctors generally can speak English if necessary.
The clinic will also give you the medicine after your consultation. Total cost will generally be much less than $1000.
If it’s a fungal infection which has got out of control, you will probably need to take a course of an anti-fungal pill such as fluconazole. if the creams aren’t working. This is something that a normal family doctor can deal with. (Actually you can get oral anti-fungals at some pharmacies without prescription, but it’s probably better you see the doctor in the first instance so you get the right dose and schedule.)
Going to a family clinic is a lot less hassle than going to a hospital, as with the latter you will have to first register with their front desk, then make an appointment booking with the specialist, and end up spending half a day hanging around the waiting area with loads of other sick people to see when your number comes up.
I’ve used Adventist for my husband’s dermatologist without NHI and it was still cheap. Dr. Tseng is up-to-date on the latest medicines and procedures. He’s also fluent in English as he studied in North America. You do not have to use the international priority care.
Yeah, so different cases since you were still an NHI patient.
All hospitals have stuff not covered under the NHI scheme, but that’s not what we’re talking about - see the quote from their website I posted above.
I was surprised when I saw it too, as I wanted to go to the dentistry department there.
The point is that there are many other hospitals where this isn’t the policy and a risk, so I don’t see an advantage in recommending Adventist where it seems to be.
I don’t know whether it’s a general rule or just my experience (n=3), but every time I’ve been to a clinic without NHI it’s been considerably more expensive (NT$700-800) than a hospital with longer wait times and an overall worse experience. I’d personally suggest avoiding clinics without NHI - I get the feeling that they overcharge patients outside of the NHI scheme because they can. Plus OP will probably come away with a load of painkillers, antibiotics, and omeprazole.
One of the reasons I recommended TMUH above is that you can fully register and make an appointment online as a new patient, then just show up, complete the process at the machines in the lobby, and see the doctor. It’s actually pretty convenient, especially with limited Chinese. They have evening appointments too.
