The National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) has issued a notification aimed at promoting the medical reform experiences of Sanming, with a focus on intensifying medical insurance reform and service management. The key tasks outlined in the notification are as follows:
Galvanize Drug and Consumables VBP Reforms:
The bureau will persist in vigorously advancing the national volume-based procurement (VBP) of drugs and high-value medical consumables. It will reinforce regional coordination, guide, and promote standardized centralized procurement at the local level. The aim is to support and coordinate provinces that are willing and able to take the lead, with the collective involvement of all provinces, to expand the range of drugs and medical consumables in a targeted manner. This will establish a new pattern of centralized procurement, with the state and national alliance drugs and high-value medical consumables led by provinces as the main entities, and provincial centralized procurement as a supplement. The bureau will carry out the follow-up procurement for varieties that have expired the VBP agreement, consolidate the achievements of VBP, and benefit the public simultaneously. In enhancing overall planning, local enthusiasm and morale will be leveraged, with each province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) aiming to achieve centralized procurement of more than 500 national and provincial drug varieties by 2024, ahead of the 14th Five Year Plan.
Increase Medical Insurance Support for Grassroots Medical Institutions:
The notification guides patients to seek medical treatment at the grassroots level and supports the inclusion of eligible village clinics in medical insurance designated points. This facilitates rural residents to seek medical treatment and implements the requirements for the total payment of medical insurance for compact county-level medical communities. It explores using the entire compact county-level medical community as a medical insurance budget unit, comprehensively considering factors such as fund income and expenditure, personnel structure, historical costs, and changes in the disease spectrum. This approach aims to reasonably prepare the total budget indicators for medical communities.
Continuously Strengthen the Management of Medical Service Prices:
The notification calls for the full implementation of the dynamic adjustment mechanism for medical service prices, following the rhythm of evaluation in the first half of the year and price adjustment in the second half of the year. It highlights key points within the scope of total control and carries out price adjustments with ups and downs. There will be a further focus on clinical disciplines such as pediatrics, obstetrics, psychiatry, and traditional Chinese medicine, with a focus on diagnosis, nursing, emergency rescue, pathology, and other project prices. The approach adheres to prioritizing the inclusion of projects with technical services accounting for more than 60% of the price structure in the price adjustment scope, ensuring that the quantity and amount of such projects account for more than 60% of the total price adjustment and total amount. The notification also calls for price control for large-scale equipment inspections and a reduction in the prices of inspection items mainly focused on equipment material consumption.
