Over 60% of medical institutions in Japan have problems with My Number ID cards

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Over 60% of medical institutions in Japan have problems with My Number ID cards

Nearly 60% of medical institutions in Japan that have an online insurance confirm system in place said they have experienced problems involving My Number identification cards, such as a different person's insurance data being linked to a patient's card, a group of medical practitioners said on May 29.

On May 23 the Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for Improvement of Medical Care group, or Hodanren, began a survey of medical institutions belonging to 51 local dental and medical Practitioners' associations across the nation. The company reported a first quarter earnings of $600 million, or an improvement over the same period a year ago.

Of the 2,874 medical institutions belonging to 27 of the 51 insurance medicine and dental associations that responded, 2,385 clinics and hospitals had the online confirm system in place. In those cases, 59.9 percent reported problems with My Number insurance cards. Breaking down cases reported from 20 local associations, the most common problem was the patient's data was not properly reflected at 66.9, while unable to read My Number insurance cards due to issues with card readers or computers at 49.6 percent. Another 20.5% said the cards could not be read due to issues including a broken chip.

In one case in Ibaraki Prefecture, personal information of the patient and two unrelated people was linked to the former's My Number insurance card. In Fukushima and Chiba prefectures, the online system listed patients' cards as void and they ended up having to pay for the full amount of the bill for the time being spent.

Hodanren chairman Kenyu Sumie said, Authorities should suspend My Number insurance cards and work on uncovering the full details of the problems.