Osan City Expands Coverage of Mental Health Treatment Subsidies

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Osan City announced on the 24th that it will expand the scope of support for initial diagnostic fees and outpatient treatment expenses in the 2021 mental health patient treatment subsidy program.

The mental health patient treatment subsidy program has been implemented since 2019 to establish a social safety net for mental health patients who did not receive treatment or were left untreated due to cessation of treatment. Starting this year, the support scope for initial diagnostic fees and outpatient treatment expenses will be expanded to include non-covered items.

Support for mental health-related treatment expenses consists of emergency hospitalization treatment fees, administrative hospitalization treatment fees, outpatient treatment support, initial diagnostic fees, and outpatient medical fees.

Among these, initial diagnostic fees will be expanded from the existing support for partial patient copayments at psychiatric clinics to support for full patient copayments (including non-covered items) for those whose initial consultation occurred in 2021. Outpatient treatment expenses have also been expanded from partial copayment support to full copayment support (including non-covered items).

Detailed information about the 2021 mental health patient treatment subsidy program can be found on the Osan Mental Health and Welfare Center website (http://www.osanmh.com/). Inquiries can be made by calling the Osan Mental Health and Welfare Center (031-374-8680).

Ko Dong-hoon, Director of the Osan City Health Center, said, "We will expand the scope of voluntary treatment targets for citizens' mental health management and strengthen support to focus on early diagnosis and prevention of mental illness."