The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) yesterday dismissed a news report that said it has illegally granted “resident status” to Chinese nationals living in Taiwan without a foreign resident certificate to entitle them to the coverage under the NHI program.

The agency made the remarks in response to an article published yesterday by the Chinese-language newspaper Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), which said the administration used the approach to benefit more than 60,000 Chinese.