Mainland hospitals will no longer be allowed to impose a 15 per cent surcharge on prescription medicine, but will be permitted to charge medical service fees, according to a major reform plan unveiled yesterday.
The reform is only one part of a programme to fix problems in the mainland’s much-criticised public hospital system. It aims to stop hospitals from over-prescribing drugs and selling more expensive drugs to subsidise operating expenses.
This profit-driven management model had meant a “heavy burden on patients and led to a waste of medical resources”, Health Minister Chen Zhu told a national health care conference.
Other areas to be reformed are medical insurance, basic medical services and public health services. The whole plan would be issued soon, Mr. Chen said.
The ministry would select a group of cities as pilot projects in the hospital reform in the next three years, he said.
Also, rather than asking hospitals to raise their operating expenses, the government will provide subsidies for public hospitals to improve infrastructure, procure large medical equipment and train doctors, according to a summary of his speech posted yesterday on the ministry’s website.
The government will also subsidise other health care services, such as emergency treatments, special programmes to help farmers and border cities, and other services designated by the government.
Funding preferences will be given to hospitals specialising in infectious diseases and vocational diseases, Chinese herbal medicine, psychiatry, maternity and paediatrics.
Public hospitals have been the sticking point of the debate surrounding health care reform.
Mr. Chen said the government intended to allow hospitals to charge medical service fees, such as consultation fees for prescriptions, and to raise prices for technical services to help make up for the shortfall in income after medication surcharges were cancelled.
Patients with medical insurance could be reimbursed for the service fees, he said.
The government will also finance the construction of about 2,000 county-level hospitals over the next three years, with work due to start this year. The goal was to ensure each county had at least one hospital operating at national standards, he said.
In the cities, the government will build or upgrade 3,700 community-level clinics and 11,000 medical service points in three years. It will also subsidise the building of 2,400 community clinics in impoverished urban areas.
Gordon Liu Guoen, a Peking University professor specialising in the mainland’s health care system, said the reform plan could not resolve the crucial problem in the system.
“Although the government is moving in the right direction by increasing funding to public hospitals, fair and efficient allocation of the funds cannot be guaranteed within the proposed framework,” he said.
Some scholars, including Professor Liu, have argued that the government should invest in a comprehensive insurance system instead of pumping money into hospitals directly to avoid corruption and misuse of public funds.
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Hospitals to End 15pc Surcharge on Medicines
Reform plan for public health care
Josephine Ma in Beijing
10 January 2009
Mainland hospitals will no longer be allowed to impose a 15 per cent surcharge on prescription medicine, but will be permitted to charge medical service fees, according to a major reform plan unveiled yesterday.
The reform is only one part of a programme to fix problems in the mainland’s much-criticised public hospital system. It aims to stop hospitals from over-prescribing drugs and selling more expensive drugs to subsidise operating expenses.
This profit-driven management model had meant a “heavy burden on patients and led to a waste of medical resources”, Health Minister Chen Zhu told a national health care conference.
Other areas to be reformed are medical insurance, basic medical services and public health services. The whole plan would be issued soon, Mr. Chen said.
The ministry would select a group of cities as pilot projects in the hospital reform in the next three years, he said.
Also, rather than asking hospitals to raise their operating expenses, the government will provide subsidies for public hospitals to improve infrastructure, procure large medical equipment and train doctors, according to a summary of his speech posted yesterday on the ministry’s website.
The government will also subsidise other health care services, such as emergency treatments, special programmes to help farmers and border cities, and other services designated by the government.
Funding preferences will be given to hospitals specialising in infectious diseases and vocational diseases, Chinese herbal medicine, psychiatry, maternity and paediatrics.
Public hospitals have been the sticking point of the debate surrounding health care reform.
Mr. Chen said the government intended to allow hospitals to charge medical service fees, such as consultation fees for prescriptions, and to raise prices for technical services to help make up for the shortfall in income after medication surcharges were cancelled.
Patients with medical insurance could be reimbursed for the service fees, he said.
The government will also finance the construction of about 2,000 county-level hospitals over the next three years, with work due to start this year. The goal was to ensure each county had at least one hospital operating at national standards, he said.
In the cities, the government will build or upgrade 3,700 community-level clinics and 11,000 medical service points in three years. It will also subsidise the building of 2,400 community clinics in impoverished urban areas.
Gordon Liu Guoen, a Peking University professor specialising in the mainland’s health care system, said the reform plan could not resolve the crucial problem in the system.
“Although the government is moving in the right direction by increasing funding to public hospitals, fair and efficient allocation of the funds cannot be guaranteed within the proposed framework,” he said.
Some scholars, including Professor Liu, have argued that the government should invest in a comprehensive insurance system instead of pumping money into hospitals directly to avoid corruption and misuse of public funds.
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