Restrictions in Using Health Care Vouchers

• services provided by medical practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners, dentists, chiropractors, registered nurses and enrolled nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, medical laboratory technologists (the use of services provided by allied health professionals and laboratory test services is subject to the current referral arrangement) and optometrists (in Part I of the register) who have registered in Hong Kong and enrolled in the scheme, as well as audiologists, dietitians, clinical psychologists and speech therapists registered with the relevant healthcare professional body accredited under the Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions of the Government who have enrolled in the scheme;
• services of District Health Centres and District Health Centre Expresses;
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital/designated Health Centre of the University of Hong Kong – Shenzhen Hospital (Details);
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the clinics and departments of The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (Details);
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the clinics and departments of Zhongshan Chen Xinghai Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine (Details);
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the departments of Shenzhen New Frontier United Family Hospital (Details);
• designated outpatient dental care services of Shenzhen C.K.J Stomatological Hospital (Details);
• designated outpatient dental care services of Dental Bauhinia Specialty Service Center (Shenzhen)/Dental Bauhinia General Care Center (Shenzhen) (Details);
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the departments of Nansha Division of The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (Details); and
• designated outpatient healthcare services at the departments of Dongguan Tungwah Hospital (Details).

(including preventive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare services)

• employing staff or solely purchasing products such as medication, spectacles, dried seafood, personal care products, food products or medical equipment;
• public healthcare services subsidised by the Government, including healthcare services which the Hospital Authority purchases from the private sector (e.g. the General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership Programme), unless otherwise specified;
• inpatient services, pre-paid healthcare services and day surgery procedures, such as cataract surgery or endoscopy services; and
• settling the fees of healthcare services provided by service providers who have not enrolled in the Scheme.

• The unspent voucher amount can be carried forward and accumulated by an eligible elderly person. There is no restriction on the number of years that an elderly person may carry forward the unspent voucher amount but it cannot exceed the accumulation limit*.
  (* With effect from 26 June 2019, the accumulation limit has been increased to $8,000.)

• Starting from 26 June 2019, a cap of $2,000 every two years on the voucher amount that can be spent on optometry services has been introduced to encourage elderly persons to use the vouchers on different primary healthcare services. For elderly persons who were eligible to use vouchers in 2019 (i.e. those born in 1954 or before), the first cycle ran from 26 June 2019 to 31 December 2020 (i.e. the capping amount was still $2,000 despite the first cycle being less than two years), while the second cycle runs from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022, and so on. For elderly persons born in 1955 or after, the relevant cycle is counted from 1 January of the year in which they become eligible to use vouchers.
  
  Save for the above, there is no limit on the voucher amount that can be used each time of receiving healthcare service but the total voucher amount used by a voucher recipient to settle the fee for healthcare service received should not exceed the amount of fee for that service.

• No advance of voucher amount which is yet to be issued is allowed and it cannot be redeemed for cash.