CHAS claims for GP clinics: a practical guide for 2026

How CHAS works for a participating GP clinic

The Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) lets Singapore Citizens receive subsidies for medical and dental care at participating private GP and dental clinics. All Singapore Citizens are eligible, whatever their income; what income decides is the colour of the card, and the colour decides how much the government pays. Pioneer Generation (PG) and Merdeka Generation (MG) seniors receive their own, higher subsidies at the same clinics.

For the clinic, CHAS works like any other third-party payer. The patient pays the bill minus the subsidy, and the clinic claims the subsidy from MOH through the MOH Healthcare Claims Portal (MHCP), logging in with Corppass. The claim is only as good as the visit behind it: the card has to be valid on the day, the visit has to fall within the scheme’s caps, and the clinical notes have to support what was claimed.

CHAS covers three kinds of GP visit: common illnesses such as coughs, fevers and skin infections; chronic conditions under the Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP), currently 23 of them; and preventive care, including Healthier SG Screening, recommended vaccinations and childhood developmental screening. Dental subsidies are claimed by CHAS dental clinics.

One sequencing detail catches new clinics out: the clinic and its doctors must be accredited under MediSave for CDMP before CHAS. The Healthier SG playbook puts that at about two months, with CHAS and related schemes about a month more.

CHAS card tiers and what each one subsidises

These are the GP-clinic figures from the official CHAS GP Reference Guide (correct as at October 2025), which match chas.sg at the time of writing. Chronic figures are for the original CHAS Chronic Tier.

Simple means a visit for one chronic condition. Complex means a visit for two or more chronic conditions, or for one chronic condition with complications. The per-visit limit follows what was managed at that visit. The annual cap follows whether the patient meets the complex definition at any point in the calendar year.

Citizens on ComCare Long Term Assistance (formerly Public Assistance) get full subsidies for conditions CHAS covers. Anxiety, bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia can be claimed only by doctors in the Mental Health GP Partnership Programme.

Dental

Dental subsidies are paid per procedure at CHAS dental clinics. From 1 October 2025, ten preventive procedures such as scaling were extended to CHAS Orange, and limits rose for seven restorative procedures, including root canal treatment, for PG, MG, Blue and Orange cardholders.

Chronic subsidies, MediSave and the Healthier SG Chronic Tier

Chronic visits are where CHAS, MediSave and Healthier SG meet. The CDMP rules for MediSave also apply to CHAS claims for CDMP conditions.

Two chronic tiers for enrolled patients

Since 1 February 2024, CHAS, MG and PG cardholders enrolled with a Healthier SG clinic can choose the Healthier SG Chronic Tier at that clinic instead of the original CHAS Chronic Tier. The per-visit limits stay the same, but the annual cap for consultations, tests and unlisted medicines is lower. In exchange, medicines on the Healthier SG Medication List receive a percentage subsidy with no dollar cap, at prices comparable to the polyclinics.

MOH’s guidance is that most patients are well covered by the original tier; the Healthier SG tier suits patients whose medicine bills would exhaust the CHAS annual cap. Patients can switch as their medicines change, with the remaining balance pro-rated.

MediSave on top of CHAS

After the CHAS subsidy, MediSave can pay for CDMP treatment up to $500 a year for simple and $700 for complex chronic patients (MediSave500/700), plus $300 under Flexi-MediSave for patients aged 60 and above. The usual 15% cash co-payment has been waived since 1 February 2024 for patients treated at their enrolled Healthier SG clinic. Each MediSave payer signs a witnessed Medical Claims Authorisation Form.

How claims are submitted, capped and paid

CHAS claims go to MOH through MHCP, which clinics also use for CDMP MediSave claims. Whether keyed in or sent from the clinic management system, a claim meets the same rules:

• One claim per day. Either one acute or one chronic claim per patient per day at a clinic, never both.
• Acute caps. Four common-illness visits a month per patient per clinic, and 24 a year across all CHAS clinics. Appeals for patients who need more go through the portal.
• Chronic caps. Four chronic visits a month per patient per clinic, within the patient’s remaining calendar-year subsidy.
• Order of payers. CHAS need not be applied before employer benefits. MediSave comes after employer benefits and insurance.
• Clinical data. For diabetes and pre-diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders, COPD, asthma and chronic kidney disease, clinical data is due within one month of each visit.

Screening and vaccination claims on the same day as a CHAS claim have their own rules, published by AIC. Approved MediSave claims are paid by GIRO on the third working day after approval, per the CDMP handbook; check the portal for CHAS timing rather than assuming it matches.

Why claims are rejected or recovered in audits

MOH audits CHAS and MediSave claims. Audits are operational (was the paperwork right?) or professional (did treatment match the diagnosis, was the data accurate?), with prior notice of the cases selected. The published guidance points to the same weak spots:

• The chronic diagnosis is not clearly written in the notes, or is not a CDMP condition.
• A complex claim for a complication with no documented causal link to the chronic condition.
• Unrelated or excluded items under the chronic claim, such as sleeping pills, slimming pills or erectile dysfunction drugs for lifestyle use.
• A bill that is not itemised line by line: consultation, each medicine, investigations and total claim.
• Prescription records missing the drug name, dose, frequency or duration.
• The patient is not regularly managed at the clinic; the handbook generally expects a consultation at least every six months.
• Card status or visit caps not checked at the counter, surfacing later as over-cap or wrong-tier claims.
• Mental health conditions claimed by a doctor outside the Mental Health GP Partnership Programme.

Expect to produce the doctor’s notes, relevant lab results such as HbA1c, prescription details and itemised invoices. For MediSave, wrong claims are refunded to the patient’s account with interest and the doctor receives a warning letter, with further cases under MOH’s enforcement framework. CHAS chronic claims follow the same handbook, so documenting for one covers the other.

A front-desk-to-claim workflow that holds up

Claims are won or lost at the counter and in the consult room, not in the portal:

1. Registration. Check the CHAS card (physical or in the Singpass app) with the NRIC; under-15s show a student ID or birth certificate. Confirm the tier is valid today, whether the patient is enrolled with you under Healthier SG, and which chronic tier applies.
2. Before the consult. Flag patients near their monthly acute cap or with a CHAS claim already today.
3. Consultation. The doctor records the conditions managed, any complication and its link, and the recommended care components.
4. Billing. Issue an itemised invoice with the subsidy and patient share as separate lines; apply corporate benefits and MediSave in order, with the authorisation form signed.
5. Submission. Claims the same day or in regular batches; clinical data within a month.
6. Reconciliation. Match MOH payments to claims and work rejections while the visit is fresh.
7. Records. Keep notes, lab reports, prescriptions and bills findable by visit, so an audit is retrieval, not a search.

If registration is where the counter slows, see reducing clinic waiting time. Weighing systems? Choosing a clinic management system lists what to test. For enrolment, see Healthier SG for GP clinics.

Frequently asked questions