Patients who hold a valid CHAS, Merdeka Generation (MG), Pioneer Generation (PG) or Public Assistance (PA) card are eligible to receive subsidies for treatment of conditions covered under CHAS. For patients with the PA card, there will not be any patient payable amount, and the cost of the bill will be reimbursed in full to the clinic.  

You can encourage your patients to apply for CHAS via the online application.  

If you wish to keep some copies of the hard-copy CHAS application form and brochures in your clinic, you may submit your request via our Contact Us form and the materials will be delivered to your clinic. Alternatively, these materials can be downloaded here. 

For list of conditions covered under CHAS for: 

• Chronic conditions: click here 
• Common illnesses (non-exhaustive): click here 

CHAS subsidies may be used to cover relevant consultation fees, medication and basic investigations/lab tests, up to the respective per visit and annual patient subsidy caps and subjected to current claiming guidelines. 

If the investigations required are not available at your clinic, you can send CHAS patients to have the test done at the most affordable and convenient laboratory/diagnostic centre or radiological centre. If the investigations are relevant to the patient’s chronic condition(s), the cost of such investigations can and should be claimed from CHAS subsidy. The per-visit and annual patient subsidy caps would still apply and no additional subsidies would be given for such investigations. 

Simple Tier  

A patient under CHAS falls under the Simple Tier if an Approved Clinic is managing only one Chronic Condition of that patient without any related complication (even if that Patient has more than one Chronic Condition).

Complex Tier  

A patient under CHAS falls under the Complex Tier if:  

(a) an Approved Clinic is managing more than one of the Chronic Conditions of the Patient under CHAS (e.g. any combination of diabetes, hypertension and lipid disorders);  

or (b) an Approved Clinic is managing one or more of the Chronic Conditions of the Patient under CHAS with related complications (e.g. with diabetic nephropathy, retinopathy, diabetic foot, stroke). 

This assessment should be done during each patient visit. The claim made for the visit should reflect the tier assigned, based on the GP’s assessment of the patient’s condition for that visit. 

If during the course of managing the patient’s chronic condition(s), the patient develops complications or his/her condition improves, the patient should be re-classified to complex chronic or simple chronic accordingly. Clinical data submitted for the patient should match the tier assigned. For example, if the patient is diagnosed as having diabetes and hypertension, clinical data should be submitted for both conditions as per CDMP requirements. 

Conditions covered under CHAS Acute can be claimed as part of a CHAS Chronic claim only when the patient consults the doctor on both CHAS Acute and CHAS Chronic conditions during the same visit. For such CHAS Chronic claims, the CHAS Acute claim cannot exceed the maximum CHAS Acute subsidy (i.e. $18.50 for CHAS Blue and $28.50 for PG) that the patient would have been eligible for if a separate visit/claim had been made for the CHAS Acute condition(s). 

It is generally not expected that a patient would need to make more than 1 visit a day or more than 4 visits per month to the clinic. Clinics are also not allowed to make more than one acute or one chronic claim on the same day for the same patient.

There is also an annual limit on number of visits for common illnesses allowed under CHAS, capped at 24 per year per patient, across all CHAS clinics. 

Clinical data submission is a key component of the CDMP framework, which is important to MOH as it allows for the evaluation of clinical outcomes with the goal of improving overall health of the population. For individual GPs, clinical data submission is equally important as a clinical quality improvement tool for self-evaluation. For a more detailed discussion of clinical data submission requirements and benefits, please refer to the latest Handbook for Healthcare Professionals 2018.  

For those clinics using a Clinic Management System (CMS), submission of clinical data for your CHAS patients can be done directly within CMS itself using the same method as for CDMP submissions. For clinics doing web-based submission of claims, the submission of clinical data should be done via the MOH Healthcare Claims Portal(MHCP).

For such patients you would only need to submit clinical data either via the MOH Healthcare Claims Portal (MHCP) or CMS. The same set of clinical data does not need to be re-entered on MediClaim as it will be integrated backend at the database level.

GPs have the autonomy to determine the reasonable rate to be charged to their patients, if all charges and subsidies are clearly indicated on the itemised bill provided to patient. CHAS patients are expected to co-pay for their treatment under CHAS. However, for patients on the Public Assistance (PA) scheme, no fees should be collected from them– the full visit cost will be reimbursed by the Government. Clinics have 30 days from the patient’s visit date to submit a claim. 

The annual subsidies for chronic conditions are allocated to the patients i.e. the subsidy cap of will apply across all GP clinics/consultations. However, patients are encouraged to stay with the same family physician for all their primary care needs so that they can receive holistic care. 

Both the CMS and MOH Healthcare Claims Portal (MHCP) platforms have a function for you to check your patient’s annual subsidy balance for chronic treatment. Please refer to the CMS and MHCP user guides for detailed instructions on how to do this.  

You cannot make additional chronic claims under CHAS if the patient’s annual subsidy cap for the treatment of chronic condition(s) has been reached. Claims made cannot exceed the per visit cap and the patient’s annual subsidy balance. 

There will not be any additional transaction fees deducted from the subsidy amounts claimable for acute and chronic visits. 

Claims may be rejected for various reasons (e.g. annual subsidies for the patient has been fully utilised). Please contact your AIC Account Manager to enquire on such claims. You may click here for contact details of your AIC Account Manager. 

This could happen if there is a lag between the time you checked the balance and when you submitted your claim. In the interim, additional claims could have been made by other clinics that used up the annual subsidy balance.

For example: 

Since the claim for Visit 4 was only submitted on 30 Nov, the balance was used up by the claim submitted for Visit 5 in between the time the balance was checked and when the claim for Visit 4 was submitted.

You will be reimbursed within 1 month from the claim approval date if there are no issues. For further queries, please contact your AIC Account Manager. You may click here for contact details of your AIC Account Manager. 

All CHAS clinics are required to issue an itemised bill to all CHAS (including PG and Public Assistance) patients. This includes patients whose charges are covered fully by CHAS subsidies and do not make any out-of-pocket payment. The itemised bill must at least state the following:  

• the total charges before CHAS subsidy (with a breakdown into Consultation, Medication, Investigation and Others);
• the total CHAS subsidy given; and
• the remaining amount that the patient pays.

Example of itemised bill:    

For further queries, please contact your AIC Account Manager. You may click here for contact details of your AIC Account Manager. 

Clinic should use the CHAS Medical referral form to refer eligible CHAS patients to SOCs, for the SOC visit to be subsidised. The referral form will need to be given to the patient, who will have to bring to the SOC on appointment date, together with valid personal identification and CHAS card at the SOC. When calling the institution for SOC appointment on behalf of patient, it should be highlighted during the phone call that it is a CHAS referral.  

If the patient does not have the CHAS Referral Form on the day of appointment, the SOC may contact the clinic for assistance to send it to the SOC by fax (or email).

The referral is not limited to the conditions that are covered by CHAS. For example, you can refer a CHAS patient to the SOC for suspected cancer and this would still be considered a subsidised referral. However, a subsidised referral must be made to the SOC first and not directly to the laboratory, to ensure that any test ordered is necessary for the patient’s condition.  

CHAS Green cardholders are qualified for subsidised referrals to SOCs in public hospitals. The amount of subsidies accorded is subjected to means testing and patient should be advised to clarify with the respective public hospital directly.