Following dental implants, orthodontic supplies will also be included in the scope of centralized procurement. A few days ago, this news has been further confirmed.
On the 19th, the Shaanxi Provincial Public **** Resource Transaction Center - Pharmaceuticals and Equipment Centralized Purchasing Platform issued the "Interprovincial Union (District, Corps) Orthodontic Bracket Centralized Volume Purchasing Announcement" (hereinafter: "Announcement"). Accordingly, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other 15 provinces (autonomous regions, production and construction corps) will form an alliance on orthodontic supplies centralized banding procurement, specifically involving brackets, bracketless invisible braces, buccal tubes. Procurement cycle for two years.
It is worth noting that at the end of September, Shaanxi Province, the public **** Resources Trading Center has only issued a news release that the proposed organization to call the nineteen provinces inter-provincial alliance of orthodontic materials brackets class of consumables banded purchasing work for corporate research. The aforementioned "announcement" from the research work only half a month or so, the set of procurement to promote the speed can be seen.
Invisible orthodontics is also in the scope of collective purchasing
From the content of the aforementioned "Announcement", most in the market "unexpected" Department of the policy level of invisible orthodontic attitude.
At the end of September, when the news came out that the proposed orthodontic supplies will be collected and purchased, industry insiders generally expected that the collection and purchase of the scope of the traditional orthodontic treatment, that is, "steel braces"; for the era of angels, Invisalign engaged in, the more innovative invisible orthodontics (i.e., "invisible braces"), the invisible orthodontics, the invisible orthodontics, the invisible orthodontics, the invisible braces, the invisible orthodontics, the invisible braces. The market for invisible orthodontics (i.e., "invisible braces"), which is a relatively new market practiced by Time Angel and Invisalign, may be less affected.
But the Announcement released on the 19th said that the procurement scope of this collection includes: for the People's Republic of China **** and the State Medical Device Registration Certificate for the listed brackets, invisible braces without brackets, buccal tubes. Which, invisible braces without brackets directly refers to invisible orthodontics.
And invisible orthodontics domestic and foreign two leading enterprises: the times angel and Invisalign (Invisalign) invisible aligners also appeared in the "Notice" Schedule 2 "national medical insurance medical consumables coding table". Another according to the statistics of the reporter of the Science and Technology Board Daily, there are 453 models of invisible aligners on the table***, accounting for 4.37% of the total number of the table, and *** involving about 40 companies.
At least 30% price reduction
Specifically looking at the details, this centralized band purchasing in addition to buccal tube, other products including ordinary metal brackets, ordinary ceramic brackets, self-locking metal brackets, self-locking ceramic brackets, no bracket aligners are divided into two groups A and B.
Wherein, Group A refers to the enterprises with the top 70% of the cumulative purchasing demand for each product category (at least 5, less than 5, according to the purchasing demand in descending order) in order of purchasing demand by the inter-provincial alliance of healthcare organizations; the rest is Group B. If all the declared enterprises in the same product category are less than 5, then all the declared enterprises of the product will be in Group A.
From the price point of view, regardless of A, B group, products of the lowest effective price reduction of 30% . According to the "first round of bidding, expert bargaining, to determine the successful enterprises and products" three steps. Among them, the evaluation experts can synthesize the clinical needs and use, product features, product quality and other factors, for the declaration of the price is not reasonable products, can be proposed with the enterprise bargaining.
Enterprise declaration time is: October 20, 2022 to October 28, 2022 24:00.
In addition, the collection, the alliance province (district, corps) of public medical institutions (including military hospitals) to participate in all; health insurance designated social medical institutions to participate voluntarily. This is consistent with the rules of dental implant collection and procurement.
Collective procurement on the consumer side of the impact or limited
A responsible for the procurement of dental consumables industry insiders told the "Science and Technology Board Daily", the collection of orthodontic products may not have a significant impact on the industry, but "the specifics are not yet good to judge. This is mainly because the aforementioned consumables have a small impact on the overall cost of orthodontics. Some statistics show that orthodontic supplies account for about 30% of the cost of orthodontics - so the impact on the consumer experience of the "price cut" may be limited.
Specifically for invisible orthodontics, previously, the "Science and Technology Board Daily" reporter in the front line visit was also informed that the technical threshold of the invisible aligners is very low: "in the dental clinic equipped with 3D printers, raw materials, orthodontists can also make their own invisible aligners. In addition to labor, all costs may be less than 3,000 yuan."
Another doctor told SciTech Daily that from what he has learned, orthodontics is different from dental implants in that orthodontics is a price-insensitive consumer. "The average consumer has already prepared a budget before undergoing orthodontics and will not be 'stimulated to spend' by a price reduction." He stated claimed.
In addition, orthodontics has a long correction cycle, usually two to three years, after which a retainer needs to be worn for a certain period of time. Therefore, "impulse spending" is also rare.
The reporter tried to contact Times Angels on the matter, but was unable to get in touch as of press time.
Dental implants are not covered by health insurance
In the field of dentistry, dental implants and orthodontics are the two business lines with the highest gross margins in dentistry. Just before orthodontics was included in the collection, the health insurance bureau has also confirmed that dental implants will not be included in the health insurance.
In mid-October, the National Health Insurance Bureau issued a reply to Recommendation No. 6184 of the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress. Accordingly, dental implants will not be included in health insurance payments for the time being.
"Compared with fixed dentures, movable dentures, etc., dental implants belong to a higher level of medical needs, and their inclusion in the health insurance reimbursement is neither in line with the 'basic' positioning, nor in line with the principle of fairness and reasonableness and the relevant requirements of the treatment list. Therefore, from the point of view of the overall development of the health insurance system at this stage, the public's demand for disease treatment, as well as the level of financing and risk-resistant capacity of the health insurance fund, there is no ability to include dental implants in the scope of health insurance payment for the time being." The medical insurance bureau said in the aforementioned document.
What impact will this have on domestic implants?
The Kotaku Daily reporter learned from the corporate side that not being included in Medicare payments is a big "negative" for the release of domestic implants.
"Although, our domestic implants are not inferior to imports in terms of quality, but due to the imported brands of the market education work done more fully, in the downstream medical institutions to establish a certain degree of reputation, we want to penetrate the market, it will take some time." The head of the enterprise said.
At the same time, the person in charge also frankly said that due to the overall domestic implant production capacity is small, even if the inclusion of health insurance payments, to release, I am afraid it is difficult to increase production capacity and guarantee supply in a short period of time.
In terms of implant consumables, another industry source pointed out to a reporter from the "Science and Technology Board Daily" that, according to his understanding, the current Korean brand of implant consumables is extremely cost-effective, "I'm afraid it's difficult for domestic production to win over the Korean brand in terms of cost."