UTSUNOMIYA — Nearly 70% of health care facilities surveyed in this capital of eastern Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture feel burdened by the recent halt to the issuance of conventional health insurance cards, a observed an association of healthcare providers, as the country transitions to the all-in-one system. a “My Number” card in a digitization push.

The Tochigi Association of Physicians and Dentists faxed the surveys to 645 health facilities on Dec. 9, a week after health insurance cards stopped being issued. As of December 18, 192 establishments had responded, or 29.8%.

Nearly two-thirds – 66.1% – of establishments feel overwhelmed by change, including 25.5% who feel “very troubled”. Only 2.6% felt less burdened.

The most common problem caused by the new My Number cards was the inability to correctly display old forms of Chinese kanji characters, resulting in black circle symbols appearing, experienced by 107 of the establishments surveyed. This was followed by problems with connecting and recognizing card readers, reported by 78 respondents, followed by “invalid credentials” by 56 respondents.

A total of 77.6% of respondents said that the number of My Number health insurance card users had increased since December 2. A large majority, 77.1%, however responded that users of the My Number card just before represented less than 30% — even falling below 10% in 31.8% of establishments.

The proportion of establishments believing that My Number cards had “no merit” was twice as high, at 42.2%, compared to 20.8%. Reasons cited by those who saw benefits included “the ability to check prescription history” and “creating records for new patients has become easy.”

Health establishments hoping that conventional insurance cards would be reinstated numbered 129, or 67.2% of the total, while only seven, or 3.6%, did not hope so.

The association wants the cards to coexist with the My Number system. He said: “A significant number of people think they can no longer use their insurance card. To avoid problems, we will distribute a notice to our member medical institutions stating: “You can use either Health Insurance Cards or My Number Insurance.” cards.'”

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, as of the end of October, the usage rate of My Number insurance cards was 18.59 percent in Tochigi Prefecture. Although it is about 3 percentage points higher than the national average of 15.67%, card acceptance has not yet increased.

(Japanese original by Hiroko Arita, Utsunomiya Office)