China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has issued a list setting out standardised health insurance payouts for the treatment of 130 medical conditions in a bid to stop doctors from overprescribing medicine and treatments.
The goal is to curb unreasonable medical expenses and to keep a lid on the healthcare burden on the public. It is also to ensure the sustainability of the government-run basic medical insurance fund.
Each province, municipality, and autonomous region is encouraged to confer with experts to select at least 100 medical conditions from the list, and for each one to standardise both the treatment and a corresponding subsidy. The conditions include acute myocardial infarction, cataracts, tuberculosis, shingles, and esophageal malignancies.
Payment standards can differ from province to province according to local healthcare costs, the Ministry added.
According to the Ministry, over 743 million people were covered by the national health insurance scheme at the end of 2016, the most recent year for which this figure is available. That year, the scheme covered at least 70% of medical fees.
The list is the latest move by the Chinese government to control rapidly rising medical costs in the country’s public hospital system. In 2015, the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a directive urging local authorities to monitor the rise of medical costs in public hospitals in their jurisdiction, particularly the cost of medicine, medical consumables and examinations, and to publicise the surveillance results regularly.
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