Highlights

Health care vouchers are issued and claimed through an electronic platform. Eligible elderly persons need not pre-register, collect or carry the vouchers.

Elderly persons should visit in person the designated Shroff Office(s) of the pilot medical institutions, show a valid Hong Kong Identity Card or Certificate of Exemption issued by the Immigration Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSARG”) and receive outpatient services at the designated outpatient clinics/departments. They will need to provide consent to join Electronic Health Record Sharing System (“eHealth”) (if not already) before they could use vouchers outside Hong Kong.

The pilot medical institutions will make voucher claim for the elderly person. At the same time, the record of voucher usage in the elderly person’s account will also be updated. Upon completion of the process of making voucher claim, the medical institutions will give a printed record of the voucher balance to the elderly person for retention. However, elderly persons cannot use vouchers to pay for the same episode of service with service fees being covered by national medical insurance.

Shared Use of Vouchers between Spouses

To provide convenience to elderly person, there is no need to pre-register for voucher accounts pairing. Upon mutual consent, an elderly person and his/her spouse only need to visit a pilot medical institution (with the relevant arrangements under the GBA Pilot Scheme already launched) together, show their Hong Kong Identity Cards or Certificates of Exemption issued by the Immigration Department of the HKSARG, declare their spousal relationship and agree to share use their vouchers for a one-time voucher accounts pairing, if this has not been previously done. The pilot medical institution will then pair up the elderly persons’ voucher accounts via the eHealth System (Subsidies) to enable them to use the vouchers in each other’s account when their own have been exhausted, after receiving private primary healthcare services from the same day of accounts pairing until either party makes a written request to withdraw from the pairing.

If for specific reasons, such as physical impairment/immobility, bedriddenness, etc., the spouse of an elderly person is unable to visit the pilot medical institution in person for accounts pairing, the elderly person and his/her spouse may complete and sign a consent form downloadable from the Health Care Voucher website. The completed form should be submitted to the pilot medical institution when the elderly person receives healthcare services. The elderly couple should ensure that the information provided in the consent form is accurate and they are legally liable and will bear relevant consequences.

Once the voucher accounts are paired, should either party requires to use the other’s vouchers, he/she would need to present a copy of his/her spouse’s latest Hong Kong Identity Card or Certificate of Exemption for verification of their eligibility for using vouchers.

To safeguard elderly persons’ interest, the system will immediately send SMS notification to the designated mobile phone numbers of the elderly person and his/her spouse whenever their vouchers have been used for healthcare services. If necessary, the elderly person may provide the mobile phone number of a family member or carer.

Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Reward Scheme

A three-year Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Reward Scheme (“Pilot Reward Scheme”) is rolled out under the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme on 13 November 2023. Through providing rewards, eligible Hong Kong elderly persons aged 65 or above are encouraged to use vouchers for receiving designated primary healthcare (“PHC”) services such as health assessment, chronic disease screening and management provided by private healthcare service providers. The Pilot Reward Scheme is also applicable to the GBA Pilot Scheme. As long as an elderly person’s principal reason for visit to the designated outpatient clinics/departments of the pilot medical institution is to receive designated PHC services, the amount of vouchers used by the elderly person on that occasion can be accumulated for earning reward, which can be used for settling fees for designated PHC services in future. For designated PHC services applicable to each pilot medical institution, please refer to the dedicated page of each medical institution.

Once an elderly person has accumulated voucher spending of $1,000 or above on designated PHC services within the same year, the system will automatically allot $500 reward to his/her voucher account and send an SMS message to the mobile phone number provided by the elderly person as notification, which will also show the expiry date of the reward. Elderly persons can check the allotment of reward and balance of reward from the voucher balance enquiry page of the eHealth System (Subsidies), call the voucher balance enquiry hotline (852) 2838 0511, or use eHealth App installed on mobile phone. Besides, elderly persons can also check reward information as provided on the “Notice on Use of Health Care Voucher” after receiving healthcare services. The three-year Pilot Reward Scheme will run up to 31 December 2026. An elderly person can be allotted the reward once each year at most; that is, an elderly person can obtain $1,500 reward at most over the term of the Pilot Reward Scheme.

When an elderly person uses vouchers to pay for designated PHC services, the system will automatically deduct the relevant fee from the reward (if available) first, and then deduct the remaining fee from the balance in his/her voucher account (if necessary). Shared use of reward between spouses is not allowed.

The reward will expire by the end of the following year. Unused reward cannot be accumulated and will lapse after the expiry date.

Voucher conversion factor for calculation of voucher amount

As the vouchers are in Hong Kong dollars (“HK$”) while the fees for healthcare services provided by the pilot medical institutions are in Renminbi (“RMB”), the voucher amount to be deducted by the pilot medical institution is calculated according to a monthly updated voucher conversion factor. Details are as follows:

• The voucher conversion factor is updated by the HKSARG on a monthly basis and displayed at the designated Shroff Office(s) of the pilot medical institutions for elderly persons' reference.
• The monthly voucher conversion factor is calculated based on the average exchange rates of RMB to HKD quoted by the Hong Kong Association of Banks of five working days counting backwards from the last 4th working date of the previous month. The average of the buying and selling exchange rates of RMB to HKD of these five days will then be rounded to three decimal places (For example, 1:1.227).
  
  Example 1: Assuming a voucher conversion factor of 1:1.127 on the consultation day and a service fee of RMB¥200, if an elder chooses to use vouchers to fully settle the fee, the voucher amount to be deducted from the elder's voucher account will be HK$225.
  (i.e. RMB¥200 x 1.127 = HK$225.4, rounded to the nearest dollar is HK$225)
  
  Example 2: Assuming a voucher conversion factor of 1:1.255 on the consultation day and a service fee of RMB¥500, if an elder chooses to pay RMB¥300 of the fee by vouchers and settle the rest of the fee of RMB¥200 by cash, the voucher amount to be deducted from the elder's voucher account will be HK$377.
  (i.e. RMB¥300 x 1.255 = HK$376.5, rounded to the nearest dollar is HK$377)