The Department of Health today announced that with effect from July 28, eligible senior citizens can share healthcare vouchers with their spouse.

Elderly couples aged 65 or above who wish to share their vouchers do not have to register in advance. However, both parties in the couple need to be present at a participating healthcare service provider’s premises for the pairing up of their accounts. Following account pairing, parties can make use of their spouse’s voucher account balance upon exhaustion of their own.

During registration, parties will be requested to provide supporting evidence of their spousal relationship and give their consent to the sharing of their vouchers.

If either party is unable to register in person due to circumstances such as immobility, the couple will have to complete a form titled “Consent of Sharing Health Care Vouchers between Voucher Recipients in Spousal Relationship”. The completed form must be submitted, along with a copy of the Hong Kong identity (HKID) card of the user who cannot show up, to fulfil the registration process.

Holders of the paired accounts will each receive an SMS message to ensure that both are aware that their accounts have been paired. Similar notifications will also be sent out when either party’s voucher balance has been used by their spouse.

Starting from July 28, the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme will roll out e-consent and SMS messaging for use of vouchers more broadly. In place of paper-based consent, users will be asked to insert their HKID card into a specific card reader.

The department added that it will conduct checks in accordance with its monitoring mechanism, stressing that all suspected cases of false declarations of spousal relationships will be strictly dealt with and referred to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

It noted that making a false declaration is a criminal offence and offenders are liable to a fine or imprisonment upon conviction.

Call 2838 2311 for enquiries.