On the 18th, the State Administration for Foreign Affairs held a series of themed press conferences on the "Opening of Authoritative Department Talks". The National Medical Insurance Administration introduced the situation of medical insurance participation and the normalization adjustment of medical insurance catalogs.
In recent years, the National Medical Insurance Administration has actively promoted the centralized procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables, reduced the burden of medication on the public, and improved the quality of medication. The relevant person in charge of the National Health Insurance Bureau said at the press conference that this year, the collection of consumables for ophthalmic intraocular lens and orthopedic sports medicine will be carried out.
Shi Zihai, Deputy Director of the National Medical Security Bureau: Through centralized procurement, we have begun to reverse the continuous upward trend of drug prices in China. According to relevant calculations, the drug procurement price index in China decreased by 19% in 2022 compared to 2018. By reducing prices, we have effectively improved the accessibility of a batch of high-quality pharmaceutical consumables. For example, in the centralized procurement of drugs, the proportion of patients using high-quality drugs such as original research drugs and generic drugs that have passed consistency evaluation has increased from 50% before the centralized procurement to over 90%. For example, after the centralized procurement of heart stents, the proportion of chromium alloy stents with better material performance increased from 60% to over 90%, and stainless steel stents that previously held a large market share but had average performance began to gradually withdraw from the market. At the national level, we have carried out the eighth batch of centralized procurement of drugs this year, and we will also carry out the fourth batch of centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables, mainly for ophthalmic intraocular lens and orthopedic sports medicine consumables, and will also carry out updated batch of centralized procurement of drugs in due course.
Breakthrough in direct settlement for medical treatment across provinces and regions
Direct settlement across provinces and regions is directly related to people's medical treatment. At today's press conference, the National Medical Insurance Bureau stated that it is necessary to vigorously promote direct settlement across provinces and regions, and make breakthroughs in direct settlement of hospitalization, general outpatient services, and chronic and special diseases across provinces and regions.
Hu Jinglin, Director of the National Medical Security Bureau: Currently, there are 68800 designated medical institutions across provinces in China that have connected their hospitalization expenses, an increase of seven times compared to 2017. The direct settlement rate of hospitalization expenses across provinces has increased from less than 5% in 2017 to 65%, benefiting a total of 20.3876 million people. The second is the breakthrough in cross provincial direct settlement of ordinary outpatient clinics. At least one designated medical institution in each county is able to directly reimburse outpatient expenses for cross provincial and remote medical treatment. There are 382100 designated medical institutions nationwide that have connected general outpatient expenses across provinces, benefiting a total of 69599100 reimbursements. Thirdly, progress has been made in cross provincial direct settlement of outpatient treatment costs related to chronic and special diseases. At least one designated medical institution in each planning area can directly reimburse the costs of off-site medical treatment for five kinds of outpatient chronic and special diseases, which are hypertension, diabetes, cancer outpatient chemotherapy, uremia dialysis and anti rejection treatment after organ transplantation. The number of designated medical institutions for chronic and special diseases in outpatient clinics across provinces across the country has also reached 24600, benefiting a population of 730200 people.
