Taiwan's legislature passed changes to its medical law that reward doctors and nurses in remote areas and punish violence against hospital staff more harshly.

• Medical workers in remote areas will pay no income tax on government subsidies and bonuses for 10 years.
• Legal protection against violence now covers all hospital staff, not just licensed medical workers.
• Fines and prison terms for attacking hospital staff go up across the board.
• In medical dispute cases, courts will get expert opinions from a medical review board to speed up criminal trials.

Outlook: The tax break is meant to pull more staff into rural hospitals, where shortages have been the hardest problem to fix.