A "medical fee waiver" has to be applied for and it is means-tested. Whether it is granted, and whether in full or in part, is decided after an assessment made on a "family" basis by a medical social worker at the public hospital or clinic, a social worker at the Social Welfare Department, or an executive officer; the income lines are adjusted every quarter, so the Hospital Authority's page carries the current figures. Two financial lines have to be cleared together: the income line (one-person household $16,500, two-person $24,000, three-person $40,400, four-person $54,400, five or more $52,300) and the asset line (one-person $295,000, two-person $400,000, three-person $521,000, four-person $608,000, five-person $675,000; for each member aged 65 or above the asset limit rises by $168,000). The figures in the two tables come from two different bodies and were updated on different dates — the income figures come from the Census and Statistics Department and are noted as "updated in September 2026" and "subject to quarterly review"; the asset figures come from the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Housing Department and are noted as updated in April 2026 and adjusted annually. They cannot be treated as carrying the same date. The biggest misunderstanding is to assume that living with your parents and siblings necessarily means being counted as a household of several. The Hospital Authority's own table says the opposite: if a non-dependent patient is unmarried, "the patient would be treated as a single person household (irrespective of whether parents / legal guardians or siblings are living under the same roof)". For the same person, the threshold moves from a four-person household's $54,400 to $16,500, a difference of $37,900. Four more things will cost you if you get them wrong. (i) The speed of approval is a conditional bargain — the Hospital Authority's Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version) states that once a patient has submitted all family income and asset information and supporting documents, the waiver application "may be approved as soon as the same day". That is the fastest case, not the usual time taken. So: bringing everything at once is buying time itself. (ii) Unless there are exceptional circumstances or a justifiable reason, a waiver application submitted more than three months after the issuance date of the bill / payment request "will normally not be processed". (iii) The appeal period against a result is four weeks, and there are two separate appeals, going to different people. (iv) People already holding a partial waiver have an upgrade route that needs no fresh assessment. The waiver and the Samaritan Fund are two different things: a waiver reduces the charges of public hospitals and clinics, and the waiver certificate issued is stated in the source document to apply also to "other public institutions under the HA or the Department of Health that provide the same service"; the Fund subsidises self-financed drugs and self-financed medical items, and expressly takes only Hospital Authority patients. How the Fund works is in 〈Eczema medication and the public dermatology service〉 and is not repeated here. The 2026 fee schedule itself, and the annual charge cap of ten thousand dollars a year, are in 〈Public hospital charges in 2026〉 and are likewise not repeated here. This article will not tell you whether you will be approved — beyond the financial criteria there are non-financial factors and a discretion, exercised case by case by a medical social worker, social worker or executive officer. It only restates what each official document says itself, and marks the update date each page gives for its own figures.

#"Exemption", "waiver", "cap" and "fund" are four different things

These four words get used interchangeably in everyday conversation, but in the Hospital Authority's own documents they have different ways in, different assessments and different coverage. Go through the wrong door and the trip is wasted.

The opening passage of the Hospital Authority's page on medical fee waivers for eligible persons (footer dated September 2026) states that after the public healthcare fee reform of January 2026, the Hospital Authority continues to uphold the Government's fundamental principle that no one should be denied adequate medical treatment through lack of means, and therefore operates a medical fee waiver mechanism [Note 1].

In one sentence: this mechanism is a safety net, not a price list. The four things below have to be kept apart.

(i) Automatic exemption — no application, no means test. The "target" section of the same page names three groups: recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance from the Social Welfare Department; holders of a level 0 residential care service voucher under the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly; and recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 75 or above (including under the Guangdong Scheme and the Fujian Scheme) [Note 2]. Note the actions that passage sets out for itself: you must tell staff at each registration for treatment, and produce proof of identity. It does not simply switch itself on. (That passage lists what is in the page's "target" section, and is not a complete catalogue of every free medical arrangement in Hong Kong; item (v) below is another route that is not in it.)

(ii) The medical fee waiver — application and means test required. This is what the rest of this article is about.

(iii) The "annual charge cap" — application required, but no means test. The Hospital Authority's page on the annual charge cap for eligible persons settles the distinction in one sentence: from 1 January 2026, outside the medical fee waiver mechanism, the Hospital Authority has established a second layer of safety net, setting an annual cap of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars on public healthcare service charges for eligible patients, with no means test [Note 3]. In other words: the cap and the waiver run in parallel rather than being alternatives, and the cap side will not examine your income and assets.

⚠ But "no means test" is not "no threshold" — the threshold has simply changed form, and the answer is printed in the "eligibility" section immediately following on the same page. There are four items: the patient must be an eligible person; the patient must have paid a cumulative total of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars in "eligible medical fees and charges" within the year; at the time of application the patient must have no outstanding "eligible medical fees and charges" anywhere in the Hospital Authority; and the hospital services the patient received must not have been determined by the Hospital Authority as having "no clinical need" [Note 4].

Which is to say: the cap is a door that opens only once you have paid ten thousand dollars yourself and have nothing outstanding anywhere in the Hospital Authority at the time of application. And the reader this article is written for — someone who cannot pay, with the bill still sitting unsettled at home — fails on precisely those two. So do not treat the cap as a fallback for "if the waiver is refused": for someone who cannot pay, the waiver is the route that comes first, and the cap is the second layer that becomes available once you can. How the cap is calculated, how to apply and what counts towards it are in 〈Public hospital charges in 2026〉 and are not repeated here; the 2026 fee schedule itself is also in 〈Public hospital charges in 2026〉.

(iv) The Samaritan Fund and the Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme — these subsidise self-financed drugs and self-financed medical items, not charges. These are also means-tested and also handled by medical social workers, which is why they are the easiest to confuse with the waiver. The distinction has its own section below.

(v) Free outpatient services at the three Tung Wah hospitals — no application, no means test, but limited to named hospitals and named services. The Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 states that eligible persons attending outpatient services at Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital will continue to be exempted from the consultation and prescribed drug charges of family medicine clinics (excluding integrated clinics) — applicable to all eligible persons — and from the consultation charge of specialist outpatient clinics (excluding integrated clinics and allied health clinics), applicable only to eligible persons aged 75 or above, or 12 or below [Note 5].

How that route works, how to establish eligibility, and how the two documents differ over "integrated clinics", are in 〈What are the alternatives when the public waiting list is too long?〉 and are not repeated here. For the purposes of this article only one thing needs remembering: if your follow-up is at the family medicine clinic of one of those three hospitals, you may not need the means-tested waiver route at all.

⚠ If you are already on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, or are over seventy-five and on the Old Age Living Allowance: you do not need the rest of this article. You are in category (i) — take your identity document and say so when you register. If you attend follow-up at Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital or Kwong Wah Hospital, look at item (v) first. This article is written for people in none of those categories who genuinely cannot pay.

#Why the "medical social worker" route, rather than filling in a form and sending it off?

Because when the Government strengthened this mechanism it wrote down three principles, and the third of them directly determines the shape of the system.

Immediately after the passage on automatic exemption, the same page states that in order to protect three groups of people not receiving those social welfare benefits — people on low incomes, people with chronic illness, and poor elderly patients — the Government strengthened the waiver mechanism then in force on three principles: (i) public money should be concentrated on subsidising the disadvantaged and those services that impose a heavy financial burden on patients; (ii) in assessing whether a patient qualifies, an objective and transparent set of criteria should be set, while both financial and non-financial factors must be considered; and (iii) the strengthened mechanism should be convenient for the public to use while keeping the administrative and operating costs required at their present low level [Note 6].

In other words: this mechanism serves three groups; it uses a published objective set of criteria (the two tables below) while expressly preserving "non-financial factors"; and it will not build a new team of assessors in order to do so.

That third principle explains two practical things. First, why the assessment work went to medical social workers, social workers and executive officers already working in hospitals and at the Social Welfare Department, rather than to a separate approving department. Second, why the 2026 enhancements added an item on recognising means-test eligibility already confirmed under social welfare and other government-funded schemes — the Hospital Authority's Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet (self-dated 28 November 2025) puts it exactly that way: borrowing a result another department has already checked beats checking it again.

The mechanism also has a timeline of gradual extension, in the page's own footnotes [Note 7]: from March 2017 holders of a level 0 residential care service voucher could be exempted; from 15 July 2017 it was extended to eligible recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance; from 1 June 2018 it applied equally to recipients aged 75 or above of the Higher Old Age Living Allowance; and after the two Old Age Living Allowances merged on 1 September 2022, the exemption applied equally to recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 75 or above.

⚠ If you find it tiresome that the Government checks your affairs: the third principle is the answer. The system is deliberately designed to borrow eligibility already tested under other government schemes, so if you are an Old Age Living Allowance recipient aged 74 or below, declaring that status and signing the declaration — with staff verifying it on the online system — can save several documents.

#How is "family" counted? This step is the hinge that decides which line applies to you

The two financial lines are fixed figures; what really decides whether you clear them is how many people you are counted as. And the Hospital Authority's method runs against most people's intuition.

The first step is not counting money but settling status. The page states that in defining "family", the first step is to establish whether the patient is a dependant, that is, unmarried and either under 18, or aged 18 to 25 and in full-time education; a patient who does not meet that description is classified as a non-dependant [Note 8]. Only once status is settled does the table apply.

In one sentence: a person of 26, unmarried and working, is a one-person family under this mechanism even if living in the same flat as their parents and two younger siblings. The parenthesis "(irrespective of whether parents / legal guardians or siblings are living under the same roof)" is the source document's own, not an inference.

Two further sentences follow that passage; both widen the definition, and both are easy to miss. The first: where the basic living needs of other family members living with the patient are supported by the patient's family (for example a dependent elderly member, an adult unable to live independently for lack of income or on a low income, or a person unable to care for themselves because of their own mental or physical condition), the patient or applicant "can include these dependent family members into the means test by providing their income, asset and expenditures information for assessment" [Note 9]. The second: where an individual case has special family factors or circumstances requiring exceptional consideration, the medical social worker or social worker may exercise professional judgment and adjust the family size for that case at their discretion [Note 9].

In other words: family size is not a purely mechanical formula. A dependent elderly person living with you, an adult family member with no income whom you support, a family member living with you who cannot care for themselves because of their mental or physical condition — all can be counted in. But you have to raise it yourself, and submit their income, assets and expenditure with it.

The four footnotes are the source document's own definitions, quoted in full at [Note 10]. Footnote 5 in particular is worth reading twice: patients who are separated, divorced, in the course of divorce proceedings, or widowed fall into the "married" column under this mechanism — that is, a spouse living with them (if any) and dependent children are counted, and they are not treated as a one-person family.

⚠ Two groups should take note. Group 1: unmarried adult patients living with family — you will most likely be treated as a one-person family, with a far lower threshold, but equally you need submit only your own documents. Group 2: people supporting an elderly person or an adult without income living with them — you must raise it yourself for them to be included, and it will not happen automatically.

#The two financial lines: the income table and the asset table — two sources, two update dates

The income line and the asset line have to be cleared together, and neither can be skipped; and the two tables are not one document. Each has its own data source and its own update cycle.

The two criteria on the page state: for a one-person family, monthly family income must not exceed 150% of the "median monthly domestic household income" (excluding foreign domestic helpers) applicable to that family size; for a family of two or more, it must not exceed 100% of that median; and the patient's family asset value must be below the asset limit set for that family size for eligibility to register on the public housing waiting list, with the first self-owned or purchased property in which the patient and their family members live together excluded from that asset value; and since most elderly people no longer earn any income, the asset limit for a family with an elderly member is higher [Note 11].

The two tables are set out separately, because they do not share a source: the income figures come from the Census and Statistics Department, the asset figures from the Housing Authority and the Housing Department.

Three things that do not show on the surface and that bear directly on the reader.

First, the income line for five or more is lower than the line for four. $52,300 against $54,400, lower by $2,100; in the 75% column, $39,225 against $40,800, lower by $1,575. This is not a misprint — both language versions of the source page print it this way, because it reflects the Census and Statistics Department's household income medians themselves rather than a welfare formula in which more people means a looser line. The threshold for a household of five really is tighter than for a household of four.

Second, the last row of the two tables covers different household sizes, but the asset figure for a six-person household can be found — just not on this page. The last row of the income table is "5 or more", covering households of six and seven; the last row of the asset table is only "5", with no "or more". This page indeed does not print a row for six or more.

But that does not mean the figure is unpublished. The Hospital Authority's own criterion already says where the asset line comes from: "The value of the patient's household asset is within a prevailing asset limit in assessing eligibilities for applications for the Waiting List of Public Rental Housing (PRH) applicable to their household size". And the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version) puts the rule more plainly still: the asset limit is relaxed to the asset limit for public housing applications, while retaining the existing arrangement by which the asset limit may be raised by $168,000 for each elderly person [Note 12]. And the Housing Authority publishes the public housing application line on its own pages all the way to "10 or more persons".

In one sentence: the asset line for a six-person household is $731,000, not "cannot be found". And that figure is not an extrapolation — the five cells for 1 to 5 persons are identical, cell by cell, to the "no elderly member" column on the Hospital Authority's waiver page, and the effective date matches the April 2026 the waiver page gives for itself. The Hospital Authority itself prints the same sequence from 1 person to 10 or more in table four of the Samaritan Fund's financial assessment page (self-dated as updated on 1 April 2026), stating that the disregard is set by reference to the asset limit currently used to assess whether an applicant qualifies to register on the public housing waiting list — though table four is the Fund's disregard on disposable assets, not the waiver's asset limit, and the two cannot be read together as one table.

Two further things to settle with the medical social worker, social worker or executive officer rather than to infer from this page. First, the Housing Authority's own treatment of elderly members differs from the Hospital Authority's: the Housing Authority's note (ii) reads that where all family members are elderly persons aged 60 or above, the net asset limit is twice the limit shown in the table; the Hospital Authority adds $168,000 for each person aged 65 or above. The two rules are different and the Housing Authority's cannot be carried across. Second, both tables are adjusted periodically, and what actually governs is the figure the Hospital Authority is using on the day you apply — the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet puts it that since the median monthly income and the public housing net asset limits are updated from time to time, the final assessment result is governed by the criteria in force when the waiver application is approved.

Third, the note under the asset table is a sum you can check yourself. For each additional person aged 65 or above the asset limit rises by $168,000 — a five-person household with no elderly member $675,000, with one elderly member $843,000 (168,000 added), with two $1,011,000 (336,000 added). All nine cells with elderly members in that table follow the same addition. Likewise the 75% column is three quarters of the 100% column (for a one-person household, the 150% column divided by 1.5 and then multiplied by 0.75).

Do the arithmetic (every figure from the two tables above): a patient of 26, unmarried, without children, living with their parents and a younger brother. The instinct is to look up the four-person row, see an income line of $54,400 and an asset line of $608,000, and conclude they must clear it. But on the definitions in the previous section they are a non-dependant and unmarried, so "the patient would be treated as a single person household" — the row that actually applies is the one-person row: income line $16,500, asset line $295,000. On the income line alone the difference is $37,900. Conversely, they need submit only their own income and asset documents, not their parents' or their brother's. Same person, same flat: read the wrong row and the answer goes from "must clear it" to "may not".

One step further: if their monthly income is $7,000, below the one-person 75% line ($8,250), and their assets are below $295,000, they are at the level the next section describes as "will be considered for full waiving". If their monthly income is $12,000, still below $16,500, both criteria are met and they can apply, but they are not below the 75% line.

⚠ If you have looked up the tables yourself before, concluded you could not qualify, and gone no further: settle your household size before reading the tables, and household size is not a count of how many people live in your home.

#Clear both lines and a waiver follows? The words are "will be considered", and where that certificate travels

Below the 75% line, the words the source document uses are "will be considered for full waiving", not "will be granted". Clearing the line opens a consideration, not an entitlement.

The page states that "Patients whose monthly household income is below 75% of the MMDHI applicable to their household size and pass the asset limit test will be considered for full waiving of medical fees at public hospitals / clinics" [Note 13]. That is: below the 75% line with the assets clear, and you enter the range of consideration for a full waiver; above the line but still meeting the two criteria in the previous section, and you enter the range of a partial waiver. This page publishes no table of "income at this level means a waiver of that percentage" — the waiver is full, partial or refused, and which of the three is for the assessor to decide.

The maximum validity is eighteen months, and it is set at discretion. The page states that an approved charge waiver will be either valid once only or valid for a period; that the assessor may, having regard to the patient's actual needs and circumstances, decide the length of that period at their discretion, with a maximum validity of eighteen months; that to assist chronically ill patients who must attend specialist outpatient follow-up frequently, specialist outpatient charge waivers will also be approved in advance according to individual circumstances; and that the waiver certificate issued applies not only at the public hospital or clinic where the patient was admitted, attended or was issued the certificate, but also at public healthcare institutions under the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health providing the same services, including inpatient services, outpatient services and community nursing services [Note 14].

There are three things in that passage.

(i) A waiver may be "one-off". The validity is not automatically eighteen months; eighteen months is the ceiling. The Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet describes this enhancement as extending the maximum waiver validity from 12 months to 18 months — that is, the ceiling before the enhancement was twelve months.

(ii) Patients attending frequent follow-up may have specialist outpatient charge waivers approved in advance. That is an arrangement the page states itself, and it is worth raising when you see the medical social worker.

(iii) Once issued, that certificate covers more than the hospital or clinic that issued it. ⚠ But read it as the source document words it and no further. It is about where an already-issued certificate extends, and the condition of that extension falls on the words "the same service" — it is not a statement that Department of Health patients may apply, and it does not say that every charge on the Department of Health side is covered. Whether your particular service counts as "the same service" is to be confirmed with the assessor who issued the certificate. In the section on the Samaritan Fund below, the Fund's condition on status runs exactly the other way.

#Fail the financial lines and there is no application? Five non-financial factors, and the Hospital Authority writes that the list is not exhaustive

No. Beyond the financial criteria the source document lists five non-financial factors, and immediately after listing them declares that the list is not exhaustive.

The five are: the patient's clinical condition (defined by the frequency with which the patient uses public healthcare services and the severity of the condition); whether the patient is a person with a disability, a single parent supporting children, or otherwise a member of a disadvantaged group; whether waiving the charge would enable and help the patient to resolve family problems; whether the patient has to meet any special expenditure making it difficult to pay public medical charges; or other reasonable social factors [Note 15].

The sentence that follows matters as much as the five and cannot be read apart from them: in considering those non-financial factors, medical social workers and social workers will ensure that elderly people or chronically ill patients who use public healthcare services frequently can also obtain a waiver if needed; the categories of non-financial factor cannot be exhaustively listed, and where necessary, patients who do not meet the financial factors but face particular hardship will be dealt with at discretion according to their individual circumstances [Note 15].

In one sentence: the five above are all the source document prints, but the source document itself says the categories cannot be exhaustively listed, and expressly says that patients who fail the financial criteria but face particular hardship will be handled at discretion. So "I am not in those five" does not entail "I cannot apply" — that inference is wrong, and the source document has ruled it out itself.

Note also how the first item is defined: clinical condition is "defined by the patient's frequency of use of different public medical services, and severity of illness". Which is to say that the number of follow-up visits is itself a factor being counted.

#Where do you actually go? Online through HA Go or in person — and one in-person door does not open

The current page sets out two routes: (a) apply via HA Go, and (b) apply in person. The online route is open, but before a waiver is formally approved you still have to go to the hospital in person to sign a declaration; and on the in-person route "Integrated Family Service Centres" carries an asterisk, whose answer is printed on the very last line of the whole page.

The page states that patients who could not afford medical expense at the public sector "can apply for Medical Fee Waiving via the following routes", assessed by medical social workers, social workers or executive officers of the designated team on a household basis [Note 16].

(a) Apply via HA Go. Applicants can use the "Application, progress & status of Medical Fee Waiver" function of the HA Go "Medical Fee Assistance" App to fill in the application form and upload supporting documents, can preliminarily assess their eligibility with the Means Test Calculator first, and, if supplementary documents are needed, will be contacted by the hospital or sent a push notification to upload them through the app [Note 16]. Read the last sentence of that passage with it: "To ensure the accuracy of the submitted information, applicants are still required to visit the hospital in person to sign a declaration form before the waiver is formally approved." In other words: the online route saves the queue and the trips to hand in documents, not the in-person step altogether.

(b) Apply in person. Applicants can bring the required documents and the completed application form to the Medical Social Services Units of public hospitals / clinics or the Integrated Family Service Centres* of the Social Welfare Department during office hours, and can use the "Book Medical Social Services" function of the same app to make an appointment and shorten the on-site wait [Note 16]. The "Contact Information" section also lists Family and Child Protective Services Units and other designated service units of the SWD, with a restriction in brackets: "applicable for cases being followed up by FCPSUs and other designated service units" [Note 16].

The asterisk is explained on the last line of the whole page — after the footer date, the introductory leaflet and the video: *"Integrated Family Service Centres operated by subvented non-governmental organisations do not provide medical fee waiver application services." [Note 17]. The Chinese version carries the same sentence in the same position.

In one sentence: Integrated Family Service Centres come in two kinds; those run by the Social Welfare Department itself take applications, and those run by subvented non-governmental organisations do not. A substantial proportion of Hong Kong's Integrated Family Service Centres are run by non-governmental organisations, so this is not a triviality — go to the wrong one and the trip is wasted. To establish which kind the one near you is, the Social Welfare Department has official lists: Integrated Family Service Centres https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/family/cat_family/ifs/index.html ; Family and Child Protective Services Units https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/family/cat_familyandc/familyandc/index.html .

In person, go during office hours with originals and copies — or submit / upload them through HA Go. The page's section on applying states that patients "can bring along original and copy of relevant documents (or submit / upload via the HA Go MFA App)" to the Medical Social Services Units of public hospitals / clinics, the Integrated Family Service Centres* or the service units of SWD during office hours and submit the completed application form [Note 18]. The Chinese version of the same sentence adds 「所住地區的」 (in the district where the patient lives) before the SWD Integrated Family Service Centre; the English version does not.

The patient need not go in person. Others may submit the application on the patient's behalf, including a parent or guardian acting for a patient under eighteen, a person duly authorised by the patient (who must submit a completed authorisation form for applying for a medical fee waiver), a person appointed as the patient's guardian under the Mental Health Ordinance, or anyone acting as agent for a patient who is incapable of applying or unable to do so themselves [Note 19]. And where the person acting cannot obtain the original identity document, the same page carries a relaxation: the assessor may consider accepting a copy of the identity document for the application, except in particular situations where the original must be used to verify identity with other departments [Note 20].

The Hospital Authority has had a dedicated team since November 2025. A spokesman added in the Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 that the Hospital Authority would set up a dedicated team from November to ensure that medical fee waiver applications received by its public hospitals are handled in good time.

⚠ If you are planning to make an application on behalf of an elderly or infirm family member: you can, but you need a completed authorisation form; and if you cannot even get hold of the original identity card, the source document states that a copy may be considered.

#What do you have to submit? Five classes of document, and one phrase: "at least the past 6 months"

The form has four parts, but what actually jams an application is not the form — it is the five classes of supporting document, and above all the time span in "at least the past 6 months".

The application form (the Hospital Authority's application form for waiving of medical charges, self-dated Ver. 1/2026 and effective 1 January 2026, bilingual, 13 pages) is structured as: Part One, patient information; Part Two, the patient's family financial situation; Part Three, other family circumstances; Part 4, declaration and warranty. Under "Note:" on the cover there are three points [Note 21], two of which look trivial but are grounds for having the form handed back: corrections must be struck through and initialled, and correction fluid must not be used; and amounts need not be written to the decimal place. The banner across the top of the form reads that applying for a fee waiver rests on integrity and that declarations must be truthful.

⚠ And what most easily jams an application whose documents are all present is the signatures, not the documents. Part 4 comes in two halves: (A) signed by the patient and the applicant; (B) signed by the patient's family members. Half (B) states that each member of the patient's family (if any) signs this declaration affirming that all information about themselves on the application form (including information in supporting documents) is complete, accurate, timely and true [Note 22]. Below half (B) the form prints three sets of "signature of patient's family member" fields, each with name, date and identity card or travel document number. And below the signature fields of both halves sits the same footnote: "^ The signature must be the same as the specimen signature kept by the bank."

Which is to say: a family included in the financial assessment does not sign as "the patient or the applicant alone" — every member included has to sign in person, and the signature must match the one at the bank (because the same half of the form also authorises the Hospital Authority to verify information with banks, employers and government departments). An applicant who brings the complete set of documents but whose family did not come along and did not sign in advance is submitting an incomplete application — and the premise of the "as soon as the same day" in the fourth clock below is precisely the word "complete".

The document list on the page comes in five classes, quoted in full at [Note 23]: (i) proof of identity; (ii) proof of living together; (iii) proof of income (employees need at least the past six months of bank passbooks, statements, salary statements or an employer's income certificate, MPF contribution records, tax returns and so on; the self-employed or those running a business need profit and loss accounts, tax returns and so on; the unemployed need proof of unemployment; other income covers allowances, alimony, rental income, and annuity or insurance payouts "regardless of whether the monthly payout could be withdrawn"); (iv) proof of assets; (v) proof of major expenditure.

Several things in that list are easy to miss: the asset item expressly includes assets "in Hong Kong or outside Hong Kong" and bank accounts that have been "closed"; electronic wallets (PayMe, Alipay, WeChat Pay) require screenshots of the past six months of transactions and balances; assets managed for others and assets entrusted to others must both be declared; joint accounts have their own method (generally divided equally by the number of holders unless documents are produced showing how the sum is allocated); and class (v), proof of major expenditure, is the only class of document that works in the applicant's favour (rent, mortgage, medical receipts), yet it comes last and is the easiest to leave out.

The phrase "at least the past 6 months" is a floor, not a ceiling. The page states that the assessor will use at least the past six months of financial information for the assessment, and may, depending on the individual application, require other documents, information covering more than 6 months, enquiries into the purpose of particular withdrawals or deposits and into income and expenditure records, and may where necessary contact the patient, family or other persons for clarification, further supporting documents or verification [Note 24]. The same "note" passage carries a further sentence on documents going stale: if information that is not timely is provided when the application is made, or if information already submitted needs updating, the assessor may require all timely information to be submitted afresh [Note 24]. In other words: leave it too long and you may have to submit the whole set again.

Three simplified routes can save a large stack of documents, and one of them skips the assessment entirely.

The first: someone in your household already holds a waiver. The page states that where the patient has a family member living with them who is included in the financial assessment and who holds a valid waiver certificate, the applicant need not undergo a full financial assessment; the Hospital Authority will refer to the financial information that family member submitted and will require only necessary or missing information from the patient, without assessing everything from the beginning, and the patient obtains a waiver at the same level as that family member up to the valid date of that approved waiver; however, after approval, if the family's financial or family circumstances change, or the review mechanism or another reason requires reassessment, this simplified arrangement may terminate immediately without further notice [Note 25].

⚠ That route has a ceiling that is easy to miss: what you get is "a waiver with the same assistance level and validity end date". Which is to say that if the person in your household holds a partial waiver, what you get by this route is also partial, and will not become a full waiver because your own circumstances differ; the validity follows theirs too. To get an independent assessment result you must go through the full financial assessment.

The second: recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 74 or below. The page states that they "are only required to declare their OALA eligibility status when applying for a Medical Fee Waiver, and submit the relevant signed Declaration and Undertaking", and that upon verification by staff via the online checking system they are exempted from submitting certain documents [Note 25]. That is: no proof of receiving the allowance any more — declare the status, sign the declaration, and staff verify it on the system.

This is an exemption from documents, not from eligibility. Recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 74 or below still have to apply and still have to pass the means test; after declaring their status they are simply spared certain classes of document. Recipients aged 75 or above are one of the three automatically exempted groups in the first section and need not apply at all. Seventy-five separates two entirely different treatments.

The third: you already hold a "partial waiver" certificate — this route needs no documents and no fresh assessment. Under the heading for existing holders of medical fee waiver certificates, the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet writes two sentences: patients currently holding a waiver certificate (whether full or partial) continue to receive the waiver without reapplying, until its validity ends; and where a patient was issued a "partial" waiver certificate on financial grounds and meets the relaxed criteria for a full waiver, they may, within the three months before a booked appointment or after an inpatient stay, go to the dedicated team, declare that their financial situation has not changed significantly, and thereupon receive a full waiver under the new criteria without a further assessment, valid until the expiry date of the original waiver certificate [Note 26].

The Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 says the same thing with two differences of wording, both of which affect how you actually go about it, so both documents are set out [Note 27]: the press release version separates the "within three months" expressly into "within the three months before a booked appointment" and "within the three months after an inpatient stay"; and on where to go, the press release says the medical social services department while the information sheet says the dedicated team. To take this route, telephone that hospital's medical social services department before going and establish which counter it is.

Why this passage matters. First, its subject is people who already hold a certificate and hold a partial waiver — that is, people approved before the relaxation of 1 January 2026 and granted only part of it under the tighter old criteria. After the relaxation, the same family may well fall into the full-waiver range. Second, what it asks for is not a fresh application but a declaration, after which there is "no further assessment". Third, it is not part of the transitional window of January to March 2026 — the next section explains that that window has closed, but what this passage is tied to is the expiry date of the original waiver certificate and the three months before an appointment or after an inpatient stay. Fourth, the first half of the same sentence is also a guarantee: an old certificate does not lapse because the mechanism was enhanced.

⚠ Two groups should take note. Group 1: households where someone already holds a waiver certificate — the second person does not need a full assessment, which the source document states plainly but most people will not know, and will instead submit another complete set of documents unchanged; remember the ceiling above, though, in that what you get is their level. Group 2: people whose certificate says "partial waiver" — you are the subject of the third route: no reapplication, no resubmission of documents, no fresh assessment.

#Four clocks are running — and the one you most want, the approval clock, has its key in your hands

Time is the easiest place in this application to lose out, because there are four different deadlines with different starting points; and on the one readers most want — when will it be approved — what the Hospital Authority publishes is a conditional fastest case, not a usual time taken.

The first clock: 30 days, running from the day the medical social worker asks. The page states that if the patient or applicant fails to submit the completed application form and all the information or documents required within 30 days of the assessor's request, the application will be cancelled without further notice [Note 28]. The English version of the same sentence reads "within 30 calendar days from the date of request made by the MSWs / SWs / EOs". In other words: those 30 days do not run from the day you submit the application, but from the day the social worker asks you for documents.

The second clock: three months, running from the issuance date of the bill or payment request — the one most people fall foul of. There are two different clocks inside that same passage and they are easily confused: under Gazette Notice No. 6792, an administrative charge of 5% of the outstanding amount is imposed 60 days after the date of issue of the bill (subject to a maximum of $1,000 per bill), and 10% 90 days after (subject to a maximum of $10,000 per bill) — those two are the administrative charge clocks; while the three months is a different matter: "Unless there are exceptional circumstances or justifiable reason, medical fee waiving applications submitted more than 3 months after the issuance date of the bill / payment request will normally not be processed" [Note 29]. Which is to say: leaving that bill at home for more than three months is not merely late — it may mean there is no application to make.

The two administrative charges are cumulative; the later does not replace the earlier. The Chinese text joins items (i) and (ii) with "and"; the English on the same page is plainer still: an additional administrative charge of a further 10% on the outstanding fees amount shall be imposed if the bills remain outstanding 90 days from issuance [Note 30].

Do the arithmetic (every figure from the passage quoted above): an unsettled bill of $20,000. Past 60 days, 5% is $1,000 (not yet above the $1,000 cap). Still unsettled at 90 days, a further 10% is $2,000 (not yet above the $10,000 cap). The two together are $3,000, not $2,000. ⚠ Note also that the $10,000 there is the cap on the administrative charge for a single bill, an entirely different figure from the annual charge cap of ten thousand dollars a year in item (iii) above; do not confuse them.

The third clock: eighteen months, running from the day of the first approval. The page states that where a patient has previously submitted documents for a means test and been granted a waiver (a first application), and applies again within eighteen months of that first approval, then if their financial situation has not changed materially so as to affect their eligibility, they may continue to be granted a waiver without submitting documents for a means test, up to a maximum of eighteen months from the first approval [Note 31]. In other words: the eighteen months run from the first approval, not afresh from each renewal. If your first approval was valid for only six months, then when you apply again six months later, the document-free arrangement can carry you only to the eighteenth month after the first approval. The same passage adds that "Eligible patients will receive a push notification via the HA Go prior to the expiry of their waiver period, and may apply to extend their medical fee waiver through the HA Go "Medical Fee Assistance" App" [Note 31].

Being told there is "no need to submit financial documents" does not mean nothing to do — a declaration has to be signed. The waiver page does not say what has to be signed, but two other Hospital Authority documents do [Note 32]: on reapplying for a waiver within at most 18 months, you need only sign a declaration confirming that the family's financial situation has not changed significantly, without resubmitting financial documents. Both documents point to the same action — you still have to go in person to sign that declaration; what is saved is documents, not a journey.

The fourth clock: the approval itself — what the Hospital Authority publishes is "as soon as the same day", with the condition written into the same sentence. Page 6 of the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version) states that once the patient has submitted all family income and asset information and provided the relevant supporting documents, the application may be approved as soon as the same day [Note 33]. Page 7 of the same booklet states that on receipt of complete and accurate supporting documents, the Hospital Authority will process the application at once [Note 33].

Those two sentences have to be read together, because the condition and the result are tied. The first half of each says the same thing: complete, and accurate. So "as soon as the same day" is not a figure you queue for; it is a figure you control — bring all five classes of document at once and you are buying time itself. Conversely, one missing document sends you back to the 30-day clock above.

But be clear what kind of figure this is: it is a fastest case, not a usual time taken. The source document's word is "as soon as", not "usually". The same body, writing about a different scheme on the annual charge cap page, does use "usually": the assessment process usually takes 14 days [Note 34]. In one sentence: the cap side publishes a usual value (usually 14 days) and the waiver side publishes a best case (as soon as the same day); the two are not interchangeable, and neither is an answer to "how many weeks does approval usually take". This article sets out no figure of the kind circulating for "how many weeks it usually takes", because no such item appears in the documents the Hospital Authority has published.

⚠ Two groups should take note. Group 1: people with a stack of unsettled public hospital bills who are thinking of saving them up and applying once — the three-month line runs from each bill's own date of issue, and the longer you save them the more of them fall outside the range. Group 2: people thinking they will "go and ask first and bring the documents later" — the premise of "as soon as the same day" is that you brought everything that day; going twice moves you out of the fourth clock and into the first.

#Refused, granted only in part, or reviewed after approval — what then?

The appeal period against a result is four weeks, and there are two different appeals going to different people.

The first, against the outcome of the application: if the patient or applicant disagrees with the outcome, an appeal must be lodged within four weeks of receiving notification of the outcome from the Hospital Authority or the Social Welfare Department, with details available from the office handling the application or from the patient relations officer of the hospital concerned [Note 35]. The second, against the outcome of a review: if they disagree with the review outcome, an appeal must be lodged within four weeks of receiving the Hospital Authority's review outcome or of the date of issue of the review outcome notification (where applicable), with details available from the patient relations officer of the hospital handling the review [Note 35].

Both periods are "four weeks", and the Chinese and English texts agree (the English reads "within four weeks" in both places). Four weeks is not thirty days, and that other deadline elsewhere on the same page is about submitting documents, not about appealing — two figures, two different things, not interchangeable. The two appeals also go to different people.

There is also review after approval. The Hospital Authority set up a Review Unit (Waiver Applications) in March 2007, renamed the Medical Fee Waiver Unit in 2008, responsible for preventing and detecting fraud and abuse of medical fee waivers, the Samaritan Fund and the Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme, and for taking appropriate action against persons suspected of fraud-related offences; the review mechanism conducts in-depth investigation of suspected fraud cases, carries out regular random checks on approved cases, reviews high-risk cases, and cross-checks information with parts of the Hospital Authority, government departments, banks, employers and others [Note 36].

Note the remit of that unit: one unit reviews the medical fee waiver, the Samaritan Fund and the Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme together. That is the Hospital Authority's own statement, and it is one source of the confusion the next section deals with — the three schemes are administratively one family but substantively three different things.

Changes during the period must be reported, and the list states itself that it is not exhaustive. The page states that after submitting an application or providing a declaration, and while a waiver certificate is valid, if the family's financial or family circumstances change so as to affect eligibility, the patient or applicant "must notify the HA immediately" and provide all relevant information for a fresh means test, under the heading "Information includes but not limited to:" — five items: a change in employment; a change in income (an increase or decrease in actual monthly income, bonuses, double pay, pensions and so on); a change in the source of finances (alimony, financial help from relatives or friends, compensation received monthly or periodically, and so on); a change in family circumstances; and a change in assets (for example insurance compensation received, or increases or decreases in bank accounts or other investments) [Note 37].

The words "includes but not limited to" that head that list are the source document's own — the five are examples, not a complete list. Note that the second expressly includes bonuses and double pay, and the fifth expressly includes insurance compensation: both are one-off credits, and both are easily assumed not to count as income or assets.

The source document is blunt about the consequences of a false declaration: providing incomplete, inaccurate, untimely or erroneous information on the application form or a declaration may lead to refusal of the application, or to the partial or complete withdrawal of a waiver already granted, and/or to criminal prosecution; and in that event the Hospital Authority will treat any medical charges waived before the withdrawal as a debt and will pursue it. The page's footnote 9 states that this includes the special social, family or financial factors or circumstances the assessor originally took into account at their discretion on the basis of the declaration or other information, which may likewise be withdrawn where incomplete, inaccurate, untimely or erroneous information was provided. The source page also states that obtaining a medical fee waiver by deception is a criminal offence, prosecutable under the Theft Ordinance (Chapter 210 of the Laws of Hong Kong), carrying on conviction imprisonment for ten years [Note 38].

⚠ Two groups should take note. Group 1: people who have received a notice of refusal or of partial approval — you have four weeks, not a month and a few days, and the clock runs from the day you received the notice. Group 2: people already holding a waiver who have since changed jobs or received a sum of insurance compensation — what the source document says is that you "must notify the HA immediately", not that you mention it at your next follow-up.

#The medical fee waiver and the Samaritan Fund: two means tests, the same medical social worker, the same review unit

Both schemes are means-tested — each with one route by which the means test can be avoided or not repeated — both are done by medical social workers, and both come under the same review unit, which makes them extremely easy to confuse. But they pay for different things and are open to different people.

Four differences are worth taking one at a time, because each changes the answer to "where should I go".

First, the gate on status. As the source document words it, the waiver certificate applies at public healthcare institutions under the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health providing the same services; while the first sentence of the Samaritan Fund's eligibility page is that patients receiving assistance from the Fund must be Hospital Authority patients and must meet the following conditions (the source page prints two colons there, reproduced as found). In one sentence: for a patient attending follow-up at a Department of Health clinic, the charges side has the extension arrangement for the waiver certificate, but self-financed drugs cannot go straight to the Fund.

And the "status requirement" among those conditions has two legs, the second of which is missed if only the first sentence is read: the patient must hold the status of an "eligible person" as defined in the Hospital Authority Ordinance published in the Gazette, or the patient must be a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Immigration Ordinance (applicable only to particular extremely expensive drugs) [Note 39]. That is: the Fund's status requirement is generally "eligible person", but for particular extremely expensive drugs a permanent residence route is opened — a leg that exists only for that class of drug and is not a general relaxation.

Second, the clinical gate. The waiver's entry conditions are financial and social; nothing in them requires a doctor to think you need anything. The Fund is different: non-drug items must be assessed as necessary by a Hospital Authority doctor or allied health professional under the Hospital Authority's prevailing clinical guidelines; drug items require a treatment plan issued by a designated Hospital Authority doctor [Note 40]. That is: on the Fund side, a drug item's door opens only once a designated Hospital Authority doctor has issued a treatment plan, while non-drug items are somewhat looser.

Third, no sliding scale against a sliding scale. On the waiver side the source page has only the single 75% line separating "will be considered for full waiving" from the rest, and publishes no schedule of co-payment proportions declining with income. The Fund side has not one but two, each published on the Fund's financial assessment page: table two (one-off non-drug items, with the co-payment proportion set by the family's assets relative to the item's cost) and table five (drugs or non-one-off non-drug items, with the co-payment proportion set by the annual disposable financial resources).

Fourth, the buy-out at one million. The hash footnote on the Fund's eligibility page states that for particular extremely expensive drugs, if the patient or applicant, having reviewed the family's disposable financial resources and understood the means-test criteria for the item, is willing to pay the maximum patient co-payment for this application (that is, HK$1 million), then they need not submit the required documents to the medical social worker for a means test, though they must make the relevant declaration; and that drug subsidy approved by the Fund begins only after the maximum co-payment has been paid [Note 41]. In other words: the Fund has a route by which paying the maximum co-payment means no means test, and the waiver has no equivalent arrangement at all. That is the sharpest structural difference between the two schemes.

Those four are the differences; and the two schemes have far more in common than most people assume, deliberately so. The annex to the Government press release of 25 March 2025 — the one the waiver page itself links to — describes the amendment of the family definition as relaxing the definition of "family" to align with the definition under the safety net* for self-financed drugs or medical items, with the asterisk noted as including the Samaritan Fund [Note 42].

That is: the two schemes' definitions of "family" are aligned as a matter of policy, not by coincidence. How far the alignment reaches is visible on the two schemes' own pages: the whole "family" definition table is identical cell by cell, the definition of "dependant" is the same, the provision for including members living with and supported by the patient's family is the same, the provision for a medical social worker's discretion to adjust family size is the same, and the "at least the past 6 months" basis of calculation is the same. The five rows of income limits are the same figures too, and the Hospital Authority has said why — writing about the Fund's one-off non-drug items, the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet says that the income limit is relaxed, with the 1-person household income limit relaxed to 1.5 times that under the existing mechanism, aligned with the enhancements to the medical fee waiver mechanism [Note 43].

For the reader that is more useful than the differences: the household size you work out for the waiver application is the same answer the Fund will use. You do not have to work it out twice for the two schemes. But the two income tables carry different update dates of their own: the waiver page says updated in September 2026, while table one on the Fund's financial assessment page says updated on 2 September 2026. Same figures, two dates — cite whichever table you are using with the date on that page.

How the Samaritan Fund works, which drugs it subsidises and how its means test is calculated are not repeated here; see 〈Eczema medication and the public dermatology service〉.

And there is a third scheme, whose name is worth recognising in passing: the Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme. It comes under the same review unit as in the previous section, and likewise subsidises self-financed items. It is not opened up here.

⚠ If you are looking for help with drug costs: your route is the Fund and not the waiver; a drug item's door opens only once a designated Hospital Authority doctor has issued a treatment plan, while for a non-drug item an assessment of necessity by a doctor or allied health professional suffices; and if you are a Department of Health patient, you will find that the two sides answer differently. Conversely, if it is consultation fees, inpatient charges or investigation charges you cannot pay, the waiver is your route.

#What does this mechanism not solve?

The waiver deals with the charges of public hospitals and clinics, not with all your medical spending; and several things about it are either unpublished in the source documents themselves or have already expired.

(i) Self-financed drugs and self-financed medical items are outside what the waiver deals with. Those belong to the Samaritan Fund or the Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme.

(ii) The "conditional waiver" was a transitional arrangement, and the document states it was a matter of January to March 2026. Under the heading for transitional arrangements for medical fee waivers, the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet states that conditional waivers were to be arranged for patients in need during January to March 2026: a patient unable to afford medical charges for financial reasons, unable to provide sufficient valid documents to complete the means test, but needing same-day or urgent treatment, could sign a declaration and state their approximate financial situation and be issued a "conditional waiver" valid for three months; the patient must submit all documents to the medical social services department (dedicated team) within the validity period for a financial assessment, and if unable to submit the documents within the deadline or not eligible, must then settle all charges payable [Note 44]. The passage in the Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 on the same subject opens with the time limit itself: to handle the additional waiver applications, the Hospital Authority would adopt a series of special transitional arrangements during the transition period next year up to March.

Both documents tie the "conditional waiver" to the window of January to March 2026, and that window has closed. And the version of the current mechanism (footer dated September 2026) contains no such arrangement at all, in either language. This article therefore will not tell anyone to rely on it; and whether it continued after March is something the documents cited here do not say.

⚠ But keep them apart: in the same information sheet, the heading immediately after "conditional waiver" is the one for existing holders of medical fee waiver certificates, and that passage carries no time limit. For someone already holding a partial waiver, the upgrade route is tied to the expiry date of their own certificate and to the three-month window before an appointment or after an inpatient stay, not to the period ending in March. The two passages sit next to each other and are easily taken together as expired — do not read them as one.

(iii) The means-test calculator is preliminary reference, not approval. The waiver page says so plainly: the calculator is for the patient or applicant to make a preliminary assessment of whether their family's financial situation meets the criteria for applying, but the result is for reference only, and a formal application must be submitted and the assessor's means test passed before a waiver can be granted [Note 45].

In one sentence: the calculator saying you "qualify" does not mean you have a waiver, and its saying you "do not qualify" does not mean you should not go and ask — because the calculator computes the two financial lines, and as set out above, beyond the financial lines there are non-financial factors and a discretion, which the calculator cannot compute. The calculator: https://ewsecal.ha.org.hk/calculator/index.html?lang=tc

(iv) The phrase "under 65" is about who gained something, not about who was excluded. If you are 65 or above and hold a period waiver, this item takes nothing away from you. It is worth setting out separately, because reading only one of the documents easily produces the opposite conclusion.

On the item extending the coverage of period waivers to episodic outpatient services, the Hospital Authority and the Government used two forms of wording: the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet says the coverage of period medical fee waivers for people under 65 is extended; the Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 says the coverage of period medical fee waivers is extended to episodic family medicine outpatient services, with no age qualifier; page 3 of the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet says that all holders of period medical fee waivers need not make a separate application for a fee waiver for episodic general outpatient services, saying "all"; and page 2 of the English version of the same information sheet (self-dated 12/2025) likewise carries no age qualifier [Note 46].

The answer is in a footnote to the annex to the Government press release, and that document is one the waiver page links to itself. Footnote 2 to the annex on enhanced medical protection measures of 25 March 2025 states that at present, a holder of a period medical fee waiver under 65 who needs episodic general outpatient services has to apply to a (medical) social worker for a one-off medical fee waiver; while a person aged 65 or above need not make a separate application for a fee waiver [Note 47].

In one sentence: holders of a period waiver aged 65 or above never had to make a separate application; what this enhancement removes is the one-off application that only the under-65 group had to make. So "under 65" says who gained something and "all holders" describes the position after the change — two ways of writing about two points in time in the same matter, not a contradiction.

The practical effect for the reader: if you are 65 or above and hold a period medical fee waiver certificate, you do not need to make a separate application on account of this item when you attend episodic general or family medicine outpatient services — and you never did.

⚠ A note on wording: the earlier documents (the annex of March 2025, the booklet of April 2025) say "general outpatient"; the later ones (the press release of October 2025, the information sheet of November) say "family medicine outpatient" or "family medicine clinic". This article reproduces each document's own wording and does not harmonise them; which clinic falls into which class in practice is to be confirmed with the clinic.

(v) This certificate is not a price list. Clearing the line is "will be considered", not "will be granted"; and the source page publishes no income bands corresponding to full or partial.

#What to do next

1. Settle the household size before reading the tables. An unmarried adult patient who is not a dependant is a one-person family even living with parents and siblings — income $16,500, assets $295,000. Read the wrong row and the answer goes from "must clear it" to "may not".
2. If you support an elderly person or a family member without income living with you, raise it so they are included. It will not happen automatically, and once included both the household size and the threshold change.
3. Bring all five classes of document at once, or upload them through HA Go in one go. The premise of "as soon as the same day" is "complete and accurate"; one missing document sends you back to the 30-day clock, which runs from the day the social worker asks, and a late application is cancelled without further notice.
4. Bring every family member included in the assessment to sign. Part 4 half (B) requires each included member to sign in person, and the signature must match the one at the bank.
5. Do not save up bills. Unless there are exceptional circumstances or a justifiable reason, a waiver application submitted more than three months after the issuance date of the bill or payment request "will normally not be processed"; and the administrative charges at 60 days and 90 days are cumulative.
6. If your certificate says "partial waiver", go and make that declaration. No reapplication, no documents, no fresh assessment; the timing is within the three months before a booked appointment or after an inpatient stay, at the medical social services department or the dedicated team.
7. If someone in your household already holds a waiver, the second person does not need a full assessment. But what you get is their level and their validity — for an independent result, go through the full assessment.
8. If your income or assets miss the line by a little, it is still worth trying. The source document lists five non-financial factors and expressly states that the categories of non-financial factor cannot be exhaustively listed, and that patients who fail the financial criteria but face particular hardship will be dealt with at discretion.
9. On receiving a notice of refusal or partial approval, remember it is four weeks, not 30 days. And there are two different appeals, going to different people.
10. Be clear which route you need. Consultation fees, inpatient charges and investigation charges you cannot pay: the waiver. Self-financed drugs or self-financed medical items: the Samaritan Fund. How the new fee schedule itself and the annual cap of ten thousand dollars work are in 〈Public hospital charges in 2026〉; the Fund's list of subsidised drugs and how disposable financial resources are calculated are in 〈Eczema medication and the public dermatology service〉. For a comparison of the alternatives to waiting in the public system, see the article cited at item (v) above.
11. If you are 65 or above and hold a period waiver, no separate application is needed for episodic outpatient services. Do not read "extending the coverage for people under 65" as meaning the arrangement does not concern you.

#Frequently asked questions

I live with my parents and siblings — am I counted as a four-person household?

Usually not. The Hospital Authority's table says that if a non-dependent patient is unmarried, "the patient would be treated as a single person household (irrespective of whether parents / legal guardians or siblings are living under the same roof)". A dependant is defined as unmarried and either under 18, or aged 18 to 25 and in full-time education; a patient not meeting that description is classified as a non-dependant — which is to say an unmarried full-time student aged 18 to 25 is still a dependant and not a one-person family, and those who actually fall into the non-dependent, one-person group are unmarried patients aged 26 or above, or aged 18 to 25 and not in full-time education. The threshold is therefore the one-person row — income $16,500, assets $295,000; but that $295,000 is the "no elderly member" cell, and if the patient is themselves 65 or above the asset limit rises to $463,000. If married (which the source document notes includes patients who are separated, divorced, in the course of divorce proceedings or widowed), the spouse and dependent children are counted.

How long does approval take?

The Hospital Authority has published a fastest case, with a condition attached. Page 6 of the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version): on an application for a medical fee waiver, once the patient has submitted all family income and asset information and provided the relevant supporting documents, the application may be approved as soon as the same day. Page 7 of the same document: on receipt of complete and accurate supporting documents, the Hospital Authority will process the application at once, aiming to approve the fee waiver for the patient as quickly as possible. The premise of both is documents that are complete and accurate. Note that this is "as soon as", not "usually" — the same body, writing about a different scheme on the annual charge cap page, uses "the assessment process usually takes 14 days", and the waiver side publishes no corresponding usual value. So the accounts in circulation of "how many weeks approval usually takes" have no source in the Hospital Authority's published documents, and this article has not adopted them.

I already hold a waiver certificate — what do I have to do after the 2026 enhancements?

There are three situations, and none of them requires starting again. (i) The certificate remains valid: the passage on existing holders of medical fee waiver certificates in the Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet states that certificates currently held (whether full or partial) continue to attract the waiver, without reapplying, until their validity ends. (ii) If your certificate says "partial" and you meet the relaxed criteria for a full waiver, the same passage says you may, within the three months before a booked appointment or after an inpatient stay, go to the dedicated team, declare that your financial situation has not changed significantly, and thereupon receive a full waiver under the new criteria without a further assessment, valid until the expiry date of the original certificate; the Hospital Authority's press release of 31 October 2025 says the same thing but gives the place as the medical social services department. (iii) If you are 65 or above and hold a period waiver, you never needed a separate application for episodic general or family medicine outpatient services — footnote 2 to the annex to the Government press release: a person aged 65 or above need not make a separate application for a fee waiver.

Can I have it reviewed or appeal a refusal, and within how many days?

It is four weeks, not 30 days, and there are two of them: if you disagree with the outcome of the application, lodge an appeal within four weeks of receiving notification from the Hospital Authority or the Social Welfare Department, with the office handling the application or the patient relations officer of the hospital concerned; if you disagree with the outcome of a review, lodge an appeal within four weeks of receiving the review outcome or of the date of issue of the notification, with the patient relations officer of the hospital handling the review. The "30 days" elsewhere on that page is about submitting documents — if the completed form and all required information are not submitted within 30 days of a request by a medical social worker, social worker or executive officer, the application is cancelled without further notice.

Can the waiver certificate be used only at the hospital that issued it?

No. The waiver page states that the waiver certificate issued applies not only at the public hospital or clinic where the patient was admitted, attended or was issued the certificate, but also at "other public institutions under the HA or the Department of Health that provide the same service, including in-patient service, out-patient services and community services etc." Note that the condition of the extension is the words "the same service", and whether yours counts is to be confirmed with the assessor who issued it. Note the converse too: the Samaritan Fund's eligibility page states that patients receiving assistance from the Fund must be Hospital Authority patients — the self-financed drug route does not work this way.

The bill has been sitting for a few months — can I still apply?

Possibly not. The waiver page states: "Unless there are exceptional circumstances or justifiable reason, medical fee waiving applications submitted more than 3 months after the issuance date of the bill / payment request will normally not be processed." Separately, under Notice No. 6792, administrative charges of 5% of the outstanding amount (maximum $1,000 per bill) and 10% (maximum $10,000 per bill) are imposed 60 days and 90 days respectively after the bill is issued.

My income or assets miss the line by a little — is there anything else to try?

Yes. The waiver page lists five non-financial factors (clinical condition; disability, single parenthood or membership of a disadvantaged group; whether it would help resolve family problems; special expenditure; other reasonable social factors), and the same passage states that the categories of non-financial factor cannot be exhaustively listed, and that patients who fail the financial criteria but face particular hardship will be dealt with at discretion according to their individual circumstances. The two financial criteria also carry the note that where the financial factors are not met, other non-financial factors may be provided for the medical social worker's or social worker's consideration.

#Notes: the original texts

[Note 1] Hospital Authority, medical fee waiver page for eligible persons (Hospital Authority's English page):

It has always been the Government’s fundamental philosophy that no one will be denied adequate medical care due to lack of means. To ensure that this principle will continue to be upheld after the Public Healthcare Fees and Charges Reform in January 2026, the Hospital Authority (HA) has put in place a Medical Fee Waiver mechanism to provide assistance to needy patients.

[Note 2] The same, "target" section (Hospital Authority's English page):

The recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), Level 0 Voucher Holders of the Residential Care Service Voucher (RCSV) Scheme for the Elderly1 and Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) recipients aged 75 or above (including those recipients under the Guangdong Scheme and Fujian Scheme)2 under Social Welfare Department (SWD) will be waived from payment of public medical fees upon presentation of identity proof and claim their waiver eligibility status each time they register for consultation and their waiver status could be confirmed through online eligibility checking.

[Note 3] Hospital Authority, annual charge cap page for eligible persons:

Strengthening medical protection is an important part of the public healthcare fee reform. From 1 January 2026, outside the medical fee waiver mechanism, the Hospital Authority (the HA) has established a second layer of safety net, setting for eligible patients an annual cap of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars on public healthcare service charges — the "annual charge cap". (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「加強醫療保障是公營醫療收費改革重要的一環。由2026年1月1日起，醫院管理局（醫管局）於醫療費用減免機制外，建立第二層安全網，為合資格病人設立無需經濟審查的每年一萬港元公營醫療服務費用上限–「全年收費上限」。」

[Note 4] The same, "eligibility":

Must be an eligible person* / The patient has paid a cumulative total of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars in "eligible medical fees and charges" within the year / At the time of applying for the "annual charge cap", the patient has no outstanding "eligible medical fees and charges" anywhere in the HA / The hospital services the patient received must not have been determined by the HA as having "no clinical need" (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「必須為符合資格人士*／病人於年度內累計繳付的「合資格醫療費用及收費」達到一萬港元／在申請「全年收費上限」時，在醫管局轄下無任何拖欠的「合資格醫療費用及收費」／病人接受之醫院服務不得被醫管局裁定為「無臨床需要」」

[Note 5] Hospital Authority press release of 31 October 2025:

Eligible persons attending outpatient services at Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital will continue to be exempted from the following charges: the consultation and prescribed drug charges of family medicine clinics (excluding integrated clinics) (applicable to all eligible persons) / the consultation charge of specialist outpatient clinics (excluding integrated clinics and allied health clinics) (applicable only to eligible persons aged 75 or above, or 12 or below) (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「符合資格人士於東華東院、東華醫院及廣華醫院的門診服務求診將會繼續獲豁免繳付以下費用：家庭醫學診所（不包括綜合診所）的診治及處方藥物費用（適用於所有符合資格人士）／專科門診診所（不包括綜合診所及專職醫療診所）的診治費用（只適用於年齡為75 歲或以上，或12 歲或以下的符合資格人士）」

[Note 6] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

Other than the above recipients of social security schemes, to assist the three vulnerable groups in the community, i.e., the low income group, chronically ill patients and elderly patients who have little income or assets, the medical fee waiver mechanism is in place to provide them with effective protection from undue financial burden. The following guiding principles were taken into account when the waiver mechanism was enhanced in 2003: (1) Public funds should be channeled to the vulnerable groups and to services which carry major financial risks; (2) There should be a set of objective and transparent criteria to assess a patient’s eligibility for exemption from payment of public medical fees. At present, both financial and non-financial factors should be considered; and (3) The enhanced mechanism should facilitate accessibility to services, while maintaining low administrative and operating cost of the existing mechanism.

[Note 7] The same, footnotes 1 and 2 (Hospital Authority's English page):

1 With effective from March 2017, Level 0 Voucher Holders of the Residential Care Service Voucher (RCSV) Scheme for the Elderly are also waived from payment of public medical fees.

2 Starting from 15 Jul 2017, the Medical Fee Waiver for public medical fees has been extended to cover OALA recipients meeting the eligibility criteria and from 1 Jun 2018, the Medical Fee Waiving arrangement is also applicable to Higher OALA recipients aged 75 or above. After the merger of Normal OALA and Higher OALA on 1 Sep 2022, the Medical Fee Waiving is also applicable to OALA recipients aged 75 or above (including Guangdong Scheme and Fujian Scheme).

[Note 8] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

The eligibility assessment conducted by the MSWs / SWs / EOs would be on a household basis. The definition of “household”, first is to determine whether the patient is a dependent member of the household or not. A dependent is defined as a person who is unmarried AND either (i) under 18 years old; or (ii) 18-25 years old receiving full-time education. A patient who does not fulfil the above requirements is classified as a non-dependent patient.

[Note 9] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

When there is other family members who are living with the patient’s household and their basic necessity for living is maintained by patient’s household (e.g. the family member is an elderly who is dependent on patient’s household, or adult with no / low income and unable to sustain independent living; or individual unable to take care of oneself by reason of mental or physical condition, etc.), patient / applicant can include these dependent family members into the means test by providing their income, asset and expenditures information for assessment.

The MSWs / SWs will have discretion to adjust the household size based on their professional judgment on a case-by-case basis in light of special familial factors or circumstances that warrant exceptional consideration6.

[Note 10] The same, four footnotes (Hospital Authority's English page):

3Legally recognised adoptive parents / children or illegitimate children with proof of parentage are also included.

4A dependent is defined as a person who is unmarried AND either (i) under 18 years old; or (ii) 18-25 years old receiving full-time education.

5Including patient who is separated, divorced, undergoing legal proceedings to divorce or widowed.

6For example, MSWs may exclude a household member from the financial assessment if he/ she leaves the home temporarily and stays oversea for study/ working holiday etc.

[Note 11] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

Patients who meet both of the following two financial criteria are eligible to apply for a medical fee waiver under the enhanced mechanism (patients who do not meet these criteria could provide other non-financial factors for the consideration of MSWs / SWs: (a) The patient's monthly household income does not exceed 150% of the Median Monthly Domestic Household Income (excluding foreign domestic helpers) (MMDHI) for 1-person household, or 100% of the MMDHI for household size ≥ 2, and (b) The value of the patient's household asset is within a prevailing asset limit in assessing eligibilities for applications for the Waiting List of Public Rental Housing (PRH) applicable to their household size. It should be noted that the first flat (self-owned or rented) resided in together by the patient's household will not be counted towards this asset limit, and households with elderly members will enjoy a higher asset limit than those without (taking into account the fact that most elderly citizens will no longer earn any income and have to depend on personal savings).

[Note 12] Hospital Authority, Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version):

Asset limit: relaxed to the asset limit for public housing applications (while retaining the existing arrangement by which the asset limit may be raised by $168,000 for each elderly person). (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「資產限額 放寬至申請公屋資產限額（同時保留現時資產限額可因應每名長者而獲提升$168,000的安排。）」

[Note 13] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

Patients whose monthly household income is below 75% of the MMDHI applicable to their household size and pass the asset limit test will be considered for full waiving of medical fees at public hospitals / clinics.

[Note 14] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

A medical fee waiver granted by the MSWs / SWs / EOs after assessment will either be one-off or valid for a period of time. The MSWs / SWs / EOs have the discretion to decide the exact period based on a patient's actual needs and conditions with the longest period being eighteen months. For convenience of patients who frequently needs Specialist Out-patient (SOP) service, the MSWs / SWs / EOs may, based on individual patient’s condition, in advance grant medical fee waiver for SOP service. To make the system more user-friendly, the waiver issued by MSWs / SWs / EOs is applicable to not only the institution he / she is admitted, attends or obtains the waiver, but also other public institutions under the HA or the Department of Health that provide the same service, including in-patient service, out-patient services and community services etc.

[Note 15] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

The MSWs / SWs would also consider the following non-financial factors, apart from the financial factors of household income and asset: (a) The patient's clinical condition as defined by the patient's frequency of use of different public medical services, and severity of illness; (b) Whether the patient is a disabled person, single parent with dependent children, or from other vulnerable groups; (c) Whether a medical fee waiver could provide incentive and support to solve the patient's family problems; (d) Whether a patient has any special expenses that make it difficult to pay for his / her medical fees at public clinics / hospitals; or (e) Other justifiable social factors.

The MSWs / SWs would consider the above factors to ensure elderly or chronic patients who are frequent users of public medical services could obtain a medical fee waiver if needed. This list is not exhaustive and the MSWs / SWs will exercise their discretion to grant waivers, where appropriate, to a patient with special difficulties (even if he / she fails to meet the financial criteria) on a case-by-case basis. The waiving mechanism and guidelines will be regularly reviewed to ensure needy patients of adequate medical care.

[Note 16] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

Patients who could not afford medical expense at the public sector can apply for Medical Fee Waiving via the following routes. Medical Social Workers or Social Workers of the service units of SWD (MSWs / SWs) or Executive Officers (EOs) of Designated Team would assess the application with due consideration given to the financial, social and medical condition of applicants on a household basis.

a. Apply via HA Go Applicants can use the “Application, progress & status of Medical Fee Waiver” function under the HA Go “Medical Fee Assistance” App (MFA App) to fill in the application form and upload supporting documents directly through HA Go for Waiver application. Applicants can also preliminarily assess their eligibility using the Means Test Calculator before applying. If supplementary documents are required during the process, the hospital will contact the applicant or send a push notification via HA Go, allowing applicants to upload the required documents directly through the app. To ensure the accuracy of the submitted information, applicants are still required to visit the hospital in person to sign a declaration form before the waiver is formally approved.

b. Apply in-person Applicants can bring the required documents and completed application form to the Medical Social Services Units of the public hospitals/clinics or the Integrated Family Service Centres* of the Social Welfare Department during office hours for Waiver application. Applicants can also use the "Book Medical Social Services" function in the HA Go “Medical Fee Assistance” App to make an appointment with staff to process the application, thereby shortening the on-site waiting time at the Medical Social Services Units.

Contact Information: Medical Social Services Units of public hospitals and clinics / Integrated Family Service Centres* of SWD / Family and Child Protective Services Units (FCPSUs) and other designated service units of SWD (applicable for cases being followed up by FCPSUs and other designated service units)

[Note 17] The same, the last line of the whole page (Hospital Authority's English page):

*Integrated Family Service Centres operated by subvented non-governmental organisations do not provide medical fee waiver application services.

[Note 18] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

Patients who have financial difficulties in paying medical expenses could apply for Medical Fee Waiving. They can bring along original and copy of relevant documents (or submit / upload via the HA Go MFA App) as follows and approach Medical Social Services Units of public hospitals / clinics or the Integrated Family Service Centres* or the service units of SWD during office hours and submit the completed application form for assessment.

[Note 19] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

Other persons may submit an application for the patient. Such other persons are, a parent / guardian on behalf of his / her child under the age of 18, a person duly authorised by the patient (need to submit the completed authorisation letter), a guardian appointed under the Mental Health Ordinance, or any person may apply as the agent of the patient who is incapable / incompetent.

[Note 20] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

If the applicant authorised by patient for handling the application could not present original copy of identity document(s) of the patient / family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment, the MSWs / SWs / EOs may consider to accept the copy of identity document(s) for application purpose, except situations where the original copy of identity document(s) of the patient / family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment must be provided for verification of identity with other Department during the waiver application.

[Note 21] Hospital Authority, application form for waiving of medical charges (self-dated Ver. 1/2026, effective 1 January 2026), under "Note:" on the cover:

• Before signing, please submit accurate supporting information and read the application guidelines and this form carefully, especially the declaration and warranty in Part Four. - Please complete this form clearly in black or dark blue ballpoint pen. Where there is a writing error, please strike it through and sign beside it to confirm; on no account use correction fluid. - When entering an amount ($), figures after the decimal point need not be entered. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「- 在簽署前，請提交準確的証明資料並小心閱讀申請指引及本表格，尤其是第四部份的聲明及保證書。 - 請用黑色或深藍色原子筆清楚填寫此表格。如書寫錯誤，請用筆劃線刪改，並在旁簽名作實，切勿使用塗改液。 - 填寫金額($)時，小數點後數字不用填寫。」

[Note 22] The same, Part 4 half (B):

Each member of the patient's family (if any) signs this declaration affirming that all the information about themselves on this application form (including information in supporting documents) is complete, accurate, timely and true. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「病人家庭中每名成員 (如有) 謹簽署此聲明書，申明在此申請表上所有關於其本人的資料 (包括證明文件資料)為完整、準確、適時及真確。」

The footnote below the signature fields of both halves, and a further note:

^ The signature must be the same as the specimen signature kept by the bank. / [Note: where the applicant is also a member of the patient's family, they should sign this Part 4 half (B) in the capacity of a family member of the patient as well.] (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「^ 簽名須與銀行保存之簽署式樣相同。」 「[註：如申請人亦為病人家庭成員，則應以病人家庭成員的身分同時簽署此第四部分(乙)部。]」

[Note 23] The waiver page, the five classes of document in full (Hospital Authority's English page):

(a) Identity documents of patient / applicant / all family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment Hong Kong Identity Card / Passport / Travel document or other identity documents (b) Proof of the patient and all family members who have been included in financial assessment to be living under the same roof Tenancy agreement of public housing unit (c) Proof of household income from the patient and all family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment Employed persons: Bank passbooks, bank statements, salary statement, documents issued by employers for proving their income, Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) Scheme pay records, tax return statement or the notice of assessment, and other documentary proof of income (e.g. bonus / allowance / commission / part-time income / lump sum gratuity / monthly pension, etc.) for at least the past 6 months Self-employed / business operators: Profit & Loss Account, Tax return statement, income declaration, other proof of income Unemployed persons: Documentary proof of unemployment (e.g. termination letter, notification by an employer to an employee who is about to cease to be employed, medical proof, proof of enrollment in a full-time programme for study, proof of looking for jobs, etc.) Other income: Contribution (e.g. family / living expenses given / fees paid for family member by relative(s) and friend(s) not residing with the family), maintenance payments, rental income from e.g. property / land / carpark / vehicle / vessel, the regular payout provided under the reverse mortgage / annuity scheme / insurance policy (regardless of whether the monthly payout could be withdrawn), etc. (d) Proof of household capital asset held or owned by patient and all family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment, including all assets under their names regardless of being individually or jointly held, in Hong Kong or outside Hong Kong Bank passbooks, bank statements, bank record of active / inactive / closed accounts for at least the past 6 months relating to all the individual and joint accounts7 including saving deposit, time deposit, club deposits, foreign currency deposit, investment, shares and securities services, current account, integrated account, Jockey Club betting account, etc.; Documentary proof of self-employed / business operators, e.g. Business Registration Certificate, balance sheet, company account statements, etc.; Documentary proof of annuity scheme / insurance policies8 with investment or saving element (e.g. investment-linked insurance policies, life insurance and annuity scheme), such as monthly statement or annual report; Documentary evidence of stock, shares, warrants, funds, bonds and other investments owned; Documents proof of the ownership of the properties (including properties under reverse mortgage) / land / parking spaces, e.g. Demand Notes for Rates, Demand Notes for Government Rent, mortgage repayment schedule, etc.; Screenshot of e-wallet account no., transaction records for the past 6 months and balance (e.g. PayMe / Alipay / WeChat Pay) Asset held in trust of others / asset entrusted to others / other assets (e.g. cheques in transit) (e) Proof of household major expenses by the patient and all family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment Documentary proof of mortgage payments, rental receipts, debit notes, bills of medical expenses, etc.

7In general, the balance in the joint account is equally divided among the account holders, unless documentary proof is provided on the division of assets

[Note 24] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

The MSWs / SWs / EOs will base on the financial condition of at least past 6 months of patient and family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment for assessing the eligibility of medical fee waiver. According to individual case merit, the MSWs / SWs / EOs may request for other documents, and / or information on financial condition for more than past 6 months, make enquiries on transactions such as purpose of individual withdrawal / deposit and the details of income / expenditure record etc., and / or contact the patient / his / her family member(s) / related parties for clarification, provision of additional documentary proof / explanation and verification of information when necessary in order to assess and calculate the financial condition of patient’s household.

During the application process, the MSWs / SWs / EOs will request patient / applicant to re-submit all up-to-date information if the supporting document(s) provided is not up-to-date, or the information submitted are required to be updated.

[Note 25] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

For patients with family members living under the same roof who have been included in financial assessment that holding valid medical fee waiver certificate, they are not required to go through a full financial assessment. The HA will refer to the financial data submitted at the time of application of household members and will only request patients to provide necessary or missing information based on actual circumstances. And the patients will receive a waiver with the same assistance level and validity end date. If all related approved application(s) is / are under financial reassessment due to changes in patient’s household financial / composition status, post-approval check or other reasons, the above streamline arrangement may be terminated immediately without prior notice.

OALA recipients aged 74 or below are only required to declare their OALA eligibility status when applying for a Medical Fee Waiver, and submit the relevant signed Declaration and Undertaking. Upon verification of their eligibility status by staff via the online checking system, they will be exempted from submitting the following documents for financial assessment:

[Note 26] Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet (self-dated 28 November 2025), under the heading for existing holders of medical fee waiver certificates:

Patients currently holding a medical fee waiver certificate (whether a full or a partial waiver) may continue to receive the waiver without reapplying, until the validity of the certificate ends. / Where a patient was issued a "partial" medical fee waiver certificate on financial grounds and meets the relaxed criteria for a full waiver, the patient may, within the three months before a booked appointment or after an inpatient stay, go to the dedicated team and, after declaring that their financial situation has not changed significantly, receive a full waiver under the new criteria without a further assessment, valid until the expiry date of the original medical waiver certificate. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「現時已持有醫療費用減免證明書（不論全額或部分減免）的病人，可繼續獲得減免，毋須重新申請，直至證明書的有效期完結為止。」「如病人因經濟因素獲發「部分」醫療費用減免證明書，並符合放寬後全額減免的資格，病人可於預約就診前或住院後的三個月內，前往專隊，聲明財務狀況無顯著變化後，便可根據新準則獲得全額減免，毋須再次進行評估，而有效期至原有醫療減免證書到期日。」

[Note 27] Hospital Authority press release of 31 October 2025:

Where a patient currently holds a partial medical fee waiver certificate and meets the relaxed criteria for a full waiver, the patient may from next year, within the three months before a booked appointment or within the three months after an inpatient stay, go to the medical social services department and, after declaring that their financial situation has not changed significantly, receive a full waiver under the new criteria without a further assessment, valid until the expiry date of the original medical fee waiver certificate. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「若病人現時持有部分醫療費用減免證明書，並符合放寬後全額減免的資格，病人可於明年起在預約就診前三個月內或住院後的三個月內，前往醫務社會服務部，聲明財務狀況無顯著變化後，便可根據新準則獲得全額減免，毋須再次進行評估，而有效期至原有醫療費用減免證明書到期日。」

Page 6 of the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet also carries:

The medical fee waiver certificates patients currently hold (whether full or partial waivers) remain valid after the enhancement of the medical fee waiver mechanism on 1 January 2026, until the validity of the waiver ends. The HA will make a one-off transitional arrangement, and patients need not undergo a further assessment. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「病人現時持有的醫療費用減免證明書（不論全額或部分減免）在2026年1月1日醫療費用減免機制優化後仍然有效，直至減免有效期完結為止。醫管局會作出一次性過渡性安排，病人無需再次進行評估。」

[Note 28] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

As application process takes time, the patient / applicant should approach the MSWs / SWs / EOs to submit completed application form and provide all the necessary information as soon as possible. If the patient / applicant fails to submit the completed application form and provide all the necessary information within 30 calendar days from the date of request made by the MSWs / SWs / EOs, the application could be cancelled without further notice.

[Note 29] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

According to Gazette (G.N. 6792), administrative charge of 5% of the outstanding fee amount shall be imposed on the expiry of 60 days from the date of issuance of each bill, subject to a maximum charge of $1,000 for each bill. An additional administrative charge of a further 10% on the outstanding fees amount shall be imposed if the bills remain outstanding 90 days from issuance of the bills, subject to a maximum charge of $10,000 for each bill. Besides, as it takes time to proceed medical fee waiving application, needy patients / applicants should submit their waiver applications as early as possible. Unless there are exceptional circumstances or justifiable reason, medical fee waiving applications submitted more than 3 months after the issuance date of the bill / payment request will normally not be processed.

[Note 30] The English version of the same page: "An additional administrative charge of a further 10% on the outstanding fees amount shall be imposed if the bills remain outstanding 90 days from issuance of the bills, subject to a maximum charge of $10,000 for each bill."

[Note 31] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

When patient has an approved application (“first application”) with submission of document(s) for financial assessment, there is no need to submit financial documents for financial assessment for applying medical fee waiver within 18 months from the approval of first application, if the household’s financial conditions remain stable without significant changes affecting the waiver eligibility. Waiver may be granted up to 18 months from the approval date of the first application. Eligible patients will receive a push notification via the HA Go prior to the expiry of their waiver period, and may apply to extend their medical fee waiver through the HA Go “Medical Fee Assistance” App. If all related approved application(s) is / are under financial reassessment due to changes in patient’s household financial / composition status, post-approval check or other reasons, the above streamline arrangement may be terminated immediately without prior notice.

[Note 32] Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet:

On reapplying for a waiver within at most 18 months, you need only sign a declaration confirming that the family's financial situation has not changed significantly, without resubmitting financial documents for a means test, and may be granted a waiver up to a maximum of 18 months after the first approval (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「於最多18 個月內再次申請減免時，只需簽署聲明書確認家庭財政狀況無顯著變化，無需重新提交經濟文件作經濟審查，可獲減免至最長第一次批核後的18 個月」

Hospital Authority press release of 31 October 2025:

Where a patient reapplies for a waiver within 18 months, they need only sign a declaration confirming that the family's financial situation is unchanged, without resubmitting financial documents for assessment (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「病人如在18 個月內再次申請減免，只需簽署聲明書確認家庭財政狀況不變，毋須重新提交經濟文件作審查」

[Note 33] Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet, page 6:

On an application for a medical fee waiver, once the patient has submitted all family income and asset information and provided the relevant supporting documents, the medical fee waiver application may be approved as soon as the same day. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「就申請醫療費用減免，病人提交所有家庭收入及資產資料，並提供相關證明文件後，有關申請醫療費用減免最快即日會獲得批核。」

Page 7:

On receipt of complete and accurate supporting documents, the HA will process the application at once, aiming to approve the fee waiver for the patient as quickly as possible. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「醫管局於收到完整及準確的證明文件後，會隨即處理申請，務求盡快向病人批核費用減免。」

[Note 34] Hospital Authority, annual charge cap page for eligible persons:

The assessment process usually takes 14 days. Where an assessment cannot be completed within that period, a progress notification will be issued to the patient or applicant. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「評估過程通常需要14天。無法在此期間內完成的評估會向病人/申請人發出進度通知。」

[Note 35] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

If patient / applicant disagrees with the application result, he / she has to lodge an appeal within four weeks after the notification of the application result by HA / SWD. Related enquiries can be made to the office which handles his / her application or the Patient Relations Officer of the concerned hospital.

If patient / applicant disagrees with the results of the Post-Approval Check, he / she has to lodge an appeal within four weeks after received the notification of the checking result by HA / the issuance date of notification letter of checking result (if applicable). Related enquiries can be made to the Patient Relations Officer of the concerned hospital.

[Note 36] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

In the application of medical fee waiving, applicants are required to provide complete, accurate, true and up-to-date information to the MSWs / SWs / EOs for assessment and verification. In order to maintain integrity of the medical fee assistance systems and avoid these systems from being abused, the HA established Investigation Section (Fee Assistance Application) in March 2007 (renamed as Medical Fee Assistance Section in 2008) for the purposes of: preventing and detecting the occurrence of fraud and abuse of Medical Fee Waiving, Samaritan Fund and Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programmes / taking appropriate action against suspect who commits deception relating offence

To accomplish the purposes, a Post-Approval Checking Mechanism has been put in place at hospital clusters and the HA Head Office to conduct: in-depth investigation on suspected fraud cases of Medical Fee Waiving, Samaritan Fund or Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programmes / regular checks of approved cases selected on random basis / checking of cases with high risk factors for fraud and abuse / data matching within HA, with Government Department, bank, employer and other parties

[Note 37] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

If the financial / composition status of the patient’s household changes after the submission of the application or the provision of declaration, and during validity period of waiver which would affect the patient’s eligibility for medical fee waiver, the patient must notify the HA immediately and provide all relevant information to the MSWs / SWs / EOs for financial reassessment as appropriate. Information includes but not limited to: (i) Change of employment status (including being employed, self-employed, change of job / resigning etc.) (ii) Change of income (actual monthly income / bonus / end of year payment / pension, or changes of amount to the aforementioned items etc.) (iii) Change of sources of financial resources (e.g. maintenance paid / financial contribution from family and friends / monthly compensation / compensation received on a regular basis, or changes of amount to the aforementioned items etc.) (iv) Change of family situation (e.g. change of number of family members living under the same roof, marital status etc.) (v) Change of assets (e.g. receipt of insurance compensation, changes of amount to bank accounts or other investment products etc.)

[Note 38] The same (Hospital Authority's English page):

Provision of incomplete, inaccurate, not up-to-date or false information (including the supporting data) by way of application or declaration may result in rejection of the application or withdrawal of waiving of medical fees (in whole or in part) if approved9 and / or criminal prosecution. In such circumstances, any medical fees waived prior to withdrawal shall be recoverable by the HA as a debt repayable on demand.

9Including the MSWs / SWs’ discretionary consideration on the special social and financial factors / circumstances which was based on the declaration or supporting data provided by patient household / applicant at the time of application, maybe withdrawn due to provision of incomplete, inaccurate, not up-to-date or false information of patient’s household / applicant.

Acquiring Medical Fee Waiving by deception is a Criminal Offence. In addition to the consequence of being ineligible for the Medical Fee Waiving, the patient/ applicant/ patient's household member(s) shall be liable on conviction upon indictment to imprisonment of 10 years under the Theft Ordinance (Chapter 210 of the Laws of Hong Kong).

[Note 39] Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund, eligibility page:

Patients receiving assistance from the Fund must be Hospital Authority (HA) patients and must meet the following conditions:: / 2. Status requirement: the patient must hold the status of an "eligible person" as provided in the Hospital Authority Ordinance published in the Gazette. Or the patient must be a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Immigration Ordinance. (Applicable only to particular extremely expensive drugs ^) (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「獲基金資助的病人須為醫院管理局（醫管局）病人並符合下列條件：：」「2. 身份規定 病人必須符合憲報刊登的《醫院管理局條例》訂定的「符合資格人士」身份。 或 病人必須為《入境條例》下香港特別行政區永久性居民。（只適用於特定極度昂貴藥物 ^）」

[Note 40] The same:

1. Clinical requirement: Non-drug items — items assessed as necessary by an HA doctor or allied health professional* under the HA's prevailing clinical guidelines. Drug items — under the HA's prevailing clinical guidelines, the treatment plan for the patient must be issued by a designated HA doctor. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「1. 臨床規定 非藥物項目：由 醫管局醫生或專職醫療人員*根據醫管局現行的臨床指引評定為必需之項目。 藥物項目：根據醫管局現行的臨床指引，有關病人的治療計劃必須經由一名指定的醫管局醫生簽發。」

[Note 41] The same, the hash footnote:

#For particular extremely expensive drugs, if the patient or applicant, having reviewed the patient's family's disposable financial resources and understood the means-test criteria for the item, is willing to pay the maximum patient co-payment for this application (that is, HK$1 million), they need not submit the required documents to the medical social worker for a means test, but must make the relevant declaration stating their willingness to pay the maximum patient co-payment for this application. Drug subsidy approved by the Fund begins only after the maximum patient co-payment has been paid. Should the relevant means-test criteria change in any way, the HA will review the above arrangement. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「# 就特定極度昂貴藥物，若病人／申請人在審視病人家庭的可動用財務資源後，理解項目經濟審查準則，並願意就是次申請繳付病人最高分擔額（即港幣100萬元），則無需向醫務社工提交所需文件作經濟審查，惟病人／申請人須作出相關聲明表明其願意就是次申請繳付病人最高分擔額。在繳付病人最高分擔額後，才會開始獲得基金批核的藥物資助。如有關的經濟審查準則有任何變更，醫管局將會審視上述安排。」

[Note 42] Annex to the Government press release of 25 March 2025:

Relaxing the definition of "family" to align with the definition under the safety net* for applying for self-financed drugs or medical items / *including the Samaritan Fund (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「放寬「家庭」定義至與申請自費藥物或醫療項目安全網*下定義看齊」 「*包括撒瑪利亞基金」

[Note 43] Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet:

Relaxing the income limit: the income limit for a 1-person household is relaxed to 1.5 times that under the existing mechanism, aligned with the enhancements to the medical fee waiver mechanism (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「放寬收入限額：1 人家庭收入限額放寬至現行機制下的1.5 倍，與醫療費用減免機制優化措施看齊」

[Note 44] The same, under the heading for transitional arrangements for medical fee waivers:

Conditional waivers are to be arranged during January to March 2026 for patients in need / where a patient is unable to afford medical charges because of financial hardship, needs to apply for a medical fee waiver, and is unable to provide sufficient valid documents and information to complete the means test, but needs same-day or urgent treatment. / The patient needs to sign a declaration and state their approximate financial situation, and may then, as a special arrangement, be issued a "conditional waiver" valid for three months. / The patient must, within the validity of the "conditional waiver", submit all documents to the medical social services department (dedicated team) for a financial assessment, and an eligible patient will be issued a formal medical fee waiver certificate. / If the patient is unable to submit the documents within the deadline or does not meet the relevant eligibility criteria, they must then settle all charges payable (if any) (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「在2026 年1 月至3 月期間安排有條件減免安排予有需要的病人／病人如因經濟困難未能負擔醫療費用，需要申請醫療費用減免，且未能提供足夠有效文件及資料以完成經濟審查，但需要即日或緊急接受治療。／病人需簽署聲明書及聲明大概經濟狀況，便可作特別安排獲發有效期為三個月的「有條件減免」。／病人必須在「有條件減免」有效期內向醫務社會服務部（專隊）提交所有文件以進行經濟評估，合資格病人將獲發正式醫療費用減免證明書。／如病人未能於限期內提交文件或未符合相關申請資格，屆時必須清繳所有應繳費用（如有）」

Hospital Authority press release of 31 October 2025:

To handle the additional fee waiver applications, the HA will adopt a series of special transitional arrangements during the transition period from the start of next year to March, so that patients may be informed of the assessment outcome in good time (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「為了處理新增的費用減免申請，醫管局會於明年一至三月過渡期間採取一系列特別過渡安排，以便病人適時獲知審核結果」

[Note 45] The waiver page (Hospital Authority's English page):

There is a  Means Test Calculator  on the Medical Fee Waiving page of the HA’s website available for the patient / applicant to make a preliminary estimation of his / her household financial eligibility for Medical Fee Waiving. However, the result of the self-assessment is for reference only. To be eligible for assistance, the patient / applicant must submit a formal application and fulfil all of the above eligibility criteria including passing the financial assessment conducted by the MSWs / SWs / EOs. In addition, when there are any changes in financial status of the patient’s household / CSSA status of the patient, the patient / the applicant can utilise the Means Test Calculator to check his / her eligibility.

[Note 46] Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet:

Extending the coverage of period medical fee waivers for people under 65 to include episodic family medicine clinic services (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「擴闊65 歲以下人士的有限期醫療費用減免涵蓋範圍，以包括偶發性家庭醫學診所服務」

Hospital Authority press release of 31 October 2025:

Extending the coverage of period medical fee waivers to episodic family medicine outpatient services, and extending the maximum waiver validity of 12 months to 18 months (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「擴闊有限期醫療費用減免涵蓋範圍至偶發性家庭醫學門診服務，並延長最長12 個月的減免有效期至18 個月」

Page 3 of the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet:

All holders of period medical fee waivers need not make a separate application for a fee waiver for episodic general outpatient services (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「所有有限期醫療費用減免持有人 無需就偶發性普通科門診服務額外申請費用減免」

Page 2 of the English version of the same information sheet (self-dated 12/2025): "Holders of period waivers which cover episodic FMOP services would not need to apply one-off waiver for each episodic appointment."

[Note 47] Footnote 2 to the annex to the Government press release of 25 March 2025:

At present, where a holder of a period medical fee waiver under 65 needs episodic general outpatient services, he or she has to apply to a (medical) social worker for a one-off medical fee waiver. A person aged 65 or above need not make a separate application for a fee waiver. (our translation from the Chinese original)

Chinese original:

「現時，如65 歲以下的有限期醫療費用減免持有人需要接受偶發性普通科門診服務，他/她需向（醫務）社工申請一次性醫療費用減免。65 歲或以上人士則無需額外申請費用減免。」

#What this article does not state

• A "usual" time to approval — no figure is given here, because what the Hospital Authority publishes is a fastest case. What the Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet (self-dated as the April 2025 version) publishes is a conditional fastest case (once documents are complete and accurate, approval "as soon as the same day"), quoted above. Not one of the Hospital Authority waiver documents listed under Sources at the end sets out a figure for "how long it usually takes"; by contrast, the same body's annual charge cap page carries "the assessment process usually takes 14 days". Nor has this article adopted any of the accounts in circulation of "how many weeks approval usually takes".
• Whether the "conditional waiver" still exists — no statement is made. The documents cited here tie it to January to March 2026; and the current mechanism page (footer dated September 2026) never mentions the arrangement. Not one of the documents cited here says it has ended, and not one says it has continued. Neither direction is stated.
• The asset limit for households of six or more is not printed on the Hospital Authority's waiver page — but the figure itself is published, and this article has given it (the Housing Authority's $731,000). What is not stated here is two other things: (i) whether the Hospital Authority will in practice adopt the Housing Authority's row directly for households of six or more; and (ii) how the arrangement adding $168,000 for each person aged 65 or above stacks onto the rows for six or more. Both are to be confirmed with a medical social worker, social worker or executive officer, and this article will not extrapolate them.
• The gradation between a full waiver and a partial waiver is not published on the Hospital Authority's medical fee waiver page for eligible persons. That page has only the single 75% line, and prints no table calculating a waiver percentage by income. This article makes that statement about that page only.
• The scope of the enhancement extending the coverage of period waivers has been explained by footnote 2 to the annex to the Government press release, and this article has set it out (above). What is not stated here is that the current mechanism page does not itself restate that item, so which clinics count in today's operations as "episodic general or family medicine outpatient" services has not been defined clinic by clinic in any document cited here.
• Waivers for persons who are not eligible persons — this article does not describe the criteria. This whole article is about the medical fee waiver for eligible persons. Part Three of the application form (Ver. 1/2026) does carry an item for special circumstances (applicable to applications by persons who are not eligible persons, where the applicant must complete that item and provide the relevant supporting documents), so that route exists; but the criteria that apply to it are in another document, which this article has not cited, so nothing is stated about them.
• The content of the authorisation form for applying for a medical fee waiver — not described here. The waiver page lists that document and requires a person applying on another's behalf to submit a completed version; this article restates only that, and has not cited the terms of the document itself.
• The output of the means-test calculator — none is cited here. The page notes for itself that the result is "for reference only", and every figure in this article is taken from the tables published on the page, not from the calculator's output.
• The 2026 fee schedule, the mechanism of the annual charge cap of ten thousand dollars, and accident and emergency charges and refund arrangements — not repeated here. See this site's article on public hospital charges in 2026. This article cites the annual charge cap page only where the two mechanisms have to be told apart: its own sentence on there being no means test, and the four items in its "eligibility" section — because the requirements of having paid a cumulative ten thousand dollars in eligible medical fees and charges within the year, and of having nothing outstanding, directly decide whether the cap is a route open at all to the reader who cannot pay. The rest of that page (coverage, the annual deadline for applications, reapplying by calendar year, the carrying forward and refund of sums overpaid before approval, and the definition indicated by the asterisk on "must be an eligible person*") is not reproduced here and is all in this site's article on public hospital charges in 2026.
• The Samaritan Fund's list of subsidised drugs and the method of calculating annual disposable financial resources — not repeated here. See this site's article on the public dermatology service and drug subsidies. This article sets out only the structural differences between the two schemes and the parts deliberately aligned.
• The bands and co-payment proportions of the Fund's two progressive calculation tables (table two and table five) — not reproduced here. Both are printed on the Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund's financial assessment page (table two for one-off non-drug items, table five for drugs and non-one-off non-drug items); this article notes only that they exist and which class of application each applies to, and the figures should be read on that page directly.
• The Community Care Fund Medical Assistance Programme — this article mentions only that it exists and that it comes under the same review unit, and does not describe its criteria.
• Which medical social worker or which hospital is more lenient — no comparison is made. Everything in this article is a restatement of the content of official documents themselves.

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Disclaimer This article is for general information only and does not constitute medical or financial advice. The thresholds, deadlines and procedures described are restatements of the content of the official documents themselves, and are not a prediction of the outcome of any individual application. Whether a waiver is granted, and whether in full or in part, is decided case by case by a medical social worker, social worker or executive officer. For diagnosis or treatment, consult a qualified Hong Kong-registered doctor.

Disclaimer This article is for general information only and does not constitute medical or financial advice. Consult a qualified Hong Kong-registered doctor for diagnosis or treatment.

This article is health and public service information only. It is not a medical advertisement, and it neither promotes nor recommends the use of any particular institution, therapy or medical service.

#Sources

• The mechanism's fundamental principle (no member of the public denied adequate medical treatment through lack of means); the three automatically exempted groups and the implementation dates in their two footnotes; the three principles on which the mechanism was strengthened; the "family" definition table, the definition of dependant and footnotes three to six; the two financial criteria; the income limit table (table heading "2nd Quarter 2026", the page's own note that the figures were updated in September 2026 and are subject to quarterly review, with the table's own source given as the General Household Survey of the Census and Statistics Department); the asset limit table (the page's own note that the figures were updated in April 2026 and are adjusted annually, with the table's own source given as the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department, and 168,000 dollars added for each elderly person); the 75% line and "will be considered for full waiving"; the five non-financial factors and "the categories of non-financial factor cannot be exhaustively listed"; the maximum validity of eighteen months, validity once only, advance approval of specialist outpatient charge waivers, and the certificate applying at Hospital Authority and Department of Health institutions; the simplified arrangement for reapplying within eighteen months, the HA Go push notification and extension, and its proviso; the two application routes (via HA Go; in person), the three lines of "Contact Information" and the asterisk note ("*Integrated Family Service Centres operated by subvented non-governmental organisations do not provide medical fee waiver application services."); taking originals and copies during office hours (or submitting / uploading via HA Go); applying on another's behalf and the arrangement for copies of identity documents; the full table of the five classes of supporting document and footnote seven; "at least the past 6 months" and the discretion to require more information; untimely information having to be resubmitted; the simplified arrangement where a family member holds a valid waiver certificate; the declaration of status by recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance aged 74 or below and their table of document exemptions; the thirty-day document deadline; the 60-day and 90-day administrative charges under Notice No. 6792 and the three-month application deadline (from the issuance date of the bill / payment request); the two four-week appeals and who each goes to; the Review Unit (set up in March 2007, renamed the Medical Fee Waiver Unit in 2008), its responsibilities and the four items of the review mechanism; changes that must be reported, (i) to (v), and "includes but not limited to"; the consequences of a false declaration, footnote nine and the Theft Ordinance (Chapter 210); and the passage on the means-test calculator being "for reference only": Hospital Authority, medical fee waiver page for eligible persons, footer dated September 2026 (with the note that the MMDHI figures were updated in September 2026); quotations in this edition are from the English page: English https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=259365&Lang=ENG&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML ; Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=259365&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (retrieved 25 September 2026)
• The "conditional waiver" being confined to January to March 2026 and the consequences of its lapsing; the maximum waiver validity extended from 12 months to 18 months; extending the coverage of period medical fee waivers for people under 65 to include episodic family medicine clinic services; recognising means-test eligibility already confirmed under social welfare and other government-funded schemes; and for the Samaritan Fund's one-off non-drug items, relaxing the income limit with the 1-person household income limit relaxed to 1.5 times that under the existing mechanism, aligned with the enhancements to the medical fee waiver mechanism: Hospital Authority, Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet, Chinese version self-dated 28 November 2025 https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Fee_AM_IF_tc.pdf ; English version self-dated 12/2025 https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Fee_AM_IF_en.pdf (the two language versions carry different self-dates; retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The transitional arrangements being confined to the period ending in March 2026; extending the coverage of period medical fee waivers to episodic family medicine outpatient services and extending the maximum waiver validity of 12 months to 18 months (with no age qualifier); the HA setting up a dedicated team from November to ensure that medical fee waiver applications received by its public hospitals are handled in good time: Hospital Authority press release on the enhanced application arrangements under the medical fee waiver mechanism, 31 October 2025, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/251031Chi.pdf ; English https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/251031Eng.pdf (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The four-part structure of the application form; the cover note ("Before signing, please submit accurate supporting information and read the application guidelines and this form carefully, especially the declaration and warranty in Part Four."); the banner on integrity in applying for a fee waiver and truthful declaration; Part Three's item on special circumstances (applicable to applications by persons who are not eligible persons, where the applicant must complete that item and provide the relevant supporting documents): Hospital Authority, application form for waiving of medical charges, self-dated Ver. 1/2026 and effective 1 January 2026, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Application_Form_for_Waiving_of_Medical_Charges_TC.pdf ; English https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Application_Form_for_Waiving_of_Medical_Charges_Eng.pdf (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The annual charge cap being a second layer of safety net "outside the medical fee waiver mechanism" and having no means test; the four items in the "eligibility" section (must be an eligible person*; the patient has paid a cumulative total of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars in "eligible medical fees and charges" within the year; at the time of applying for the "annual charge cap" the patient has no outstanding "eligible medical fees and charges" anywhere in the HA; the hospital services the patient received must not have been determined by the HA as having "no clinical need"); and "the assessment process usually takes 14 days, and where an assessment cannot be completed within that period a progress notification will be issued to the patient or applicant": Hospital Authority, annual charge cap page for eligible persons, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=281820&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML ; English at the same Content_ID (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The Samaritan Fund's "patients receiving assistance from the Fund must be Hospital Authority (HA) patients and must meet the following conditions::"; the clinical requirement; the status requirement; the financial requirement; and the hash footnote's maximum patient co-payment of HK$1 million and "need not submit the required documents to the medical social worker for a means test": Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund, eligibility page, no revision date of its own, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/serviceguide_samaritan_link3-b5.htm ; English https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/eligibility_en.htm (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• Table one of income limits for the Samaritan Fund's one-off non-drug items (the table self-dated as updated on 2 September 2026); assets calculated as a multiple of the item's estimated cost, and the progressive calculation tables: Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund, financial assessment page, no revision date of its own, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/sf_fa_b5.htm ; English https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/sf_fa_en.htm (table one retrieved 25 September 2026; otherwise retrieved 3 August 2026)
• "On an application for a medical fee waiver, once the patient has submitted all family income and asset information and provided the relevant supporting documents, the medical fee waiver application may be approved as soon as the same day." (page 6); "The medical fee waiver certificates patients currently hold (whether full or partial waivers) remain valid after the enhancement of the medical fee waiver mechanism on 1 January 2026, until the validity of the waiver ends. The HA will make a one-off transitional arrangement, and patients need not undergo a further assessment." (page 6); "On receipt of complete and accurate supporting documents, the HA will process the application at once, aiming to approve the fee waiver for the patient as quickly as possible." (page 7); "All holders of period medical fee waivers need not make a separate application for a fee waiver for episodic general outpatient services" (page 3); "Asset limit: relaxed to the asset limit for public housing applications (while retaining the existing arrangement by which the asset limit may be raised by $168,000 for each elderly person.)" (page 2): Hospital Authority, Enhanced Medical Protection Measures leaflet, 8 pages, back cover self-dated as the April 2025 version, https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/WaiverpamphletTC.pdf (linked from the medical fee waiver page as the 2025.04 booklet; the document is an image version with no text layer; retrieved 3 August 2026)
• Footnote 2, "At present, where a holder of a period medical fee waiver under 65 needs episodic general outpatient services, he/she has to apply to a (medical) social worker for a one-off medical fee waiver. A person aged 65 or above need not make a separate application for a fee waiver."; and "Relaxing the definition of "family" to align with the definition under the safety net* for applying for self-financed drugs or medical items" with its note "*including the Samaritan Fund": annex to the Government press release on enhanced medical protection measures, 25 March 2025 https://gia.info.gov.hk/general/202503/25/P2025032500555_490026_1_1742903004257.pdf ; the related press release https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202503/25/P2025032500555.htm (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The two passages under the heading for existing holders of medical fee waiver certificates (old certificates continuing to attract the waiver until validity ends; holders of a partial waiver being able, within the three months before a booked appointment or after an inpatient stay, to go to the dedicated team and declare that their financial situation has not changed significantly and obtain a full waiver, without a further assessment); "On reapplying for a waiver within at most 18 months, you need only sign a declaration confirming that the family's financial situation has not changed significantly"; "since the median monthly income and the public housing net asset limits are updated from time to time, the final assessment result is governed by the criteria in force when the medical fee waiver application is approved"; and the English version's "Holders of period waivers which cover episodic FMOP services would not need to apply one-off waiver for each episodic appointment.": Hospital Authority, Enhanced Medical Fee Assistance Measures information sheet, Chinese version self-dated 28 November 2025 https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Fee_AM_IF_tc.pdf ; English version self-dated 12/2025 https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Fee_AM_IF_en.pdf (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• "Where a patient reapplies for a waiver within 18 months, they need only sign a declaration confirming that the family's financial situation is unchanged, without resubmitting financial documents for assessment"; "Where a patient currently holds a partial medical fee waiver certificate … go to the medical social services department and, after declaring that their financial situation has not changed significantly, receive a full waiver under the new criteria"; the two legs of the outpatient exemption at Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, Tung Wah Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital; and the family medicine specialist outpatient and general outpatient categories listed together under the family medicine outpatient services heading (in the annexed table): Hospital Authority press release, 31 October 2025, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/251031Chi.pdf ; English https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/pad/251031Eng.pdf (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• Net asset limits for public housing applications from 1 person to 10 or more ($295,000 / $400,000 / $521,000 / $608,000 / $675,000 / $731,000 / $781,000 / $816,000 / $904,000 / $974,000), under the page's own heading of income and net asset limits with effect from 1 April 2026, and that page's note (ii) on the doubled limit for households in which all members are aged 60 or above: Hong Kong Housing Authority, income and asset limits https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/tc/flat-application/income-and-asset-limits/index.html (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The three points under "Note:" on the cover of the application form; Part 4 half (A) "signed by the patient and the applicant" and half (B) "signed by the patient's family members"; "Each member of the patient's family (if any) signs this declaration…"; "^ The signature must be the same as the specimen signature kept by the bank."; "[Note: where the applicant is also a member of the patient's family, they should sign this Part 4 half (B) in the capacity of a family member of the patient as well.]": Hospital Authority, application form for waiving of medical charges, self-dated Ver. 1/2026 and effective 1 January 2026, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cs/Application_Form_for_Waiving_of_Medical_Charges_TC.pdf (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• "An additional administrative charge of a further 10% on the outstanding fees amount shall be imposed if the bills remain outstanding 90 days from issuance of the bills, subject to a maximum charge of $10,000 for each bill.": the English version of the Hospital Authority's medical fee waiver page for eligible persons, at the same Content_ID (Lang=ENG) https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=259365&Lang=ENG&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML (retrieved 25 September 2026)
• The two legs of the "status requirement" on the Samaritan Fund's eligibility page (the status of an "eligible person" under the Hospital Authority Ordinance; or a permanent resident of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Immigration Ordinance, applicable only to particular extremely expensive drugs): Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund, eligibility page, Chinese https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/serviceguide_samaritan_link3-b5.htm (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The Samaritan Fund's financial assessment page carrying table two (the progressive calculation table for one-off non-drug items) and table five (the progressive calculation table for drugs and non-one-off non-drug items); table four of disregarded total disposable assets (the table self-dated as updated on 1 April 2026, from 1 person to 10 or more, with its own note that the disregard is set by reference to the asset limit currently used to assess whether an applicant qualifies to register on the public housing waiting list); and the "family" definition table, the definition of dependant, the discretion to adjust family size and the "at least the past six months" basis of calculation shared by the two schemes: Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund, financial assessment page https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/sf_fa_b5.htm (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The means-test calculator (for applications from the first of January 2026): https://ewsecal.ha.org.hk/calculator/index.html?lang=tc (retrieved 3 August 2026)
• The Social Welfare Department's list of Integrated Family Service Centres: https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/family/cat_family/ifs/index.html ; the Social Welfare Department's Family and Child Protective Services Units: https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/family/cat_familyandc/familyandc/index.html (retrieved 3 August 2026)

#Further reading

• This site: Public hospital charges in 2026 and the annual charge cap
• This site: Eczema: the public dermatology service belongs to the Department of Health, and how drug subsidies work
• This site: What are the alternatives when the public waiting list is too long?
• Hospital Authority, medical fee waiver for eligible persons: https://www.ha.org.hk/visitor/ha_view_content.asp?Content_ID=259365&Lang=CHIB5&Dimension=100&Ver=HTML
• Hospital Authority Samaritan Fund: https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/sf/sf_fa_b5.htm
• Social Welfare Department Integrated Family Service Centres: https://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/pubsvc/family/cat_family/ifs/index.html