The Hospital Authority is going all out to make it easy for patients to apply for a new HK$10,000 annual fee cap that will kick in from January 1 in a move that is expected to benefit 70,000 patients.

Eligible patients will be able to apply for the cap through the authority's HA Go mobile app, hospital payment counters or self-service kiosks.

The application period runs from January 1 to March 31 each year, with processing taking roughly two weeks.

Once approved, patients only need to declare their eligibility before registration for any medical service within the year. They will not be charged additional fees once their accumulated billings have hit the HK$10,000 mark.

With the authority's pharmaceutical expenditure rising to HK$12.75 billion in 2024-25, authority chief pharmacist William Chui said the measure was aimed at providing assistance for chronically or critically ill patients while maintaining sustainability in public services.

“If their accumulated bills exceed HK$10,000, the excess amount will carry over to the next year,” Chui said.

The cap applies to a wide range of medical services, including inpatient and day-care programmes, specialist and family medicine outpatient clinics, pathology and radiology tests, as well as public-private partnership schemes that follow the authority’s fee structure.

The arrangement comes as the authority is about to embark, in January, on drug charge adjustments that will see drug fees at specialist outpatient clinics rise to HK$20 per four-week supply and fees at family medicine clinics set at HK$5 per four-week supply per drug.

“Starting from 2026, if they have three medications for influenza or the common cold, covering seven to 14 days, they will have to pay about $20,” Chui said.

Coupled with the introduction of the Office for Introducing Innovative Drugs and Medical Devices in the first half of 2026, Chui said part of the additional revenue generated would go towards supporting the use of new drugs to benefit patients with rare or critical conditions.