Medical and Elderly Care
Endowment Schemes Act 2000
2020 REVISED EDITION
This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021
An Act to reconstitute the Medical Endowment Fund and to establish the ElderCare Fund for the purpose of endowment schemes providing financial assistance in connection with medical and healthcare in Singapore and for matters connected therewith.
[27 March 2000]
PART 1
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1.  This Act is the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes Act 2000.
Interpretation
2.—(1)  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“approved institution” means any hospital or other healthcare institution approved by the Minister under section 8;
“approved provider” means an organisation providing step‑down care in respect of which an approval under section 23(5)(a) is in force;
“approved services” means step-down care provided by an approved provider in respect of which an approval under section 23(5)(a) is in force;
“authorised officer” means any officer authorised by the Minister in writing to exercise such power or perform such function or duty under this Act as the Minister may specify in writing;
“Council” means the Advisory Council established under section 6;
“ElderCare Fund” means the ElderCare Fund established under section 18(1);
“eligible patient” means a person who is eligible to make an application under section 15;
“Medifund” means the Medical Endowment Fund established under the repealed Medical Endowment Scheme Act (Cap. 173A, 1994 Revised Edition) and reconstituted under this Act;
“Medifund Account” means the account, mentioned in section 10, of a Medifund committee;
“Medifund committee” means any committee appointed under section 14;
“organisation” means a society, body or group of persons, whether corporate or unincorporated;
“personal care” means assistance of a personal nature given to help a person who, by reason of any sickness, disability or injury, is unable on his or her own to attend to his or her daily needs or carry out his or her daily routine;
“recurrent costs”, in relation to the provision of any step‑down care, means all costs incurred or to be incurred by the provider in relation to its ongoing operations in providing such care other than the following costs:
(a)the cost of acquiring the land on which the premises (whether built or to be built) at which such care is or is to be provided;
(b)such other costs that are capital in nature as the Minister may prescribe;
“step-down care” means —
(a)accommodation, personal care and health care for any person suffering or recovering from any sickness, disability or injury;
(b)personal care and health care during the day for any such person; or
(c)such other forms of health care or care arrangements as the Minister may prescribe for any such person;
“step-down care institution” means any premises used (whether or not exclusively) for the purpose of providing step‑down care;
“subvention” means a subvention under Part 3 out of the income of the ElderCare Fund.
(2)  For the purposes of this Act, step‑down care is not taken to include any medical or health care provided in any maternity home or premises used or intended to be used for the accommodation of pregnant women or of women immediately after childbirth.
(3)  For the purposes of sections 3(2)(c) and 18(1)(c), the net income from investments of capital moneys is the amount ascertained by adding to, or deducting from, the income received from the investments of capital moneys any profit derived or loss sustained (as the case may be) from the realisation of those investments.