【The China Post 每日精選】：一

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Developers in the medical and financial industries on Friday announced a new mobile payment service, e-Health Pay, that's exclusively for medical bills.

The Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinics Association and its subsidiary Cheng Pin Healthcare Consulting are the developers behind the mobile payment app.

Since its launch on March 31, the app has been downloaded about 2,000 times each on iOS and the Android operating system, supervisor Huangju Shih (施皇如) of the consulting group told The China Post.

During his speech on Friday, Richard Wu (吳明彥), secretary-general of the Taiwan Nongovernmental Hospitals and Clinics Association and general manager of Cheng Pin Healthcare Consulting, called the app a "breakthrough that is different from traditional methods of payment."

The app's remote payment ability is "a way of caring for one's relatives," Wu noted, hailing the app as "one of the best collaborations between the medical and financial communities."

According to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Vice President Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), there are a lot of financial institutions in Taiwan interested in elderly care.

22 Participating Banks

Once the app has been downloaded, users can register up to five cards, be they credit cards or Visa debit cards, and can select the banks that issued the cards.

Twenty-two banks — all local institutions — are registered to participate in e-Health Pay.

They are Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Land Bank of Taiwan, CTBC Bank, JihSun Bank, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, Taishin International Bank, Taiwan Business Bank, Bank of Taiwan, Bank SinoPac, E. Sun Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, EnTie Bank, Bank of Kaohsiung, Cathay United Bank, First Bank, KGI Bank, Hua Nan Bank, Shin Kong Bank, Chang Hwa Bank, Far Eastern International Bank, and Union Bank of Taiwan.

How it Works

Organizers of the Friday press conference put on skits to introduce the two ways in which e-Health Pay on a smartphone can be used to pay one's medical bills.

At the app's partner hospitals, e-Health Pay users can input their patient information to view and pay their medical bill. Family or friends of patients can remotely pay medical bills on their behalf.

The app works for bills at clinics, too. By scanning a QR code, a user is connected to a bill that can be paid via smartphone.