The health insurance policies that will be implemented from March 1, 2023 are no longer charging a markup on drugs, centralized procurement of drugs, and payment according to the type of disease.
1, no more drug markup fees
Though medicines are meant to cure diseases and save people's lives, the nature of their existence is, after all, a commodity, and thus there are certain markup fees when they are sold. Although these fees provide a certain economic support for the entire medical industry, they also bring a greater financial burden to the patients.
2, centralized purchasing of drugs
In the past, drugs were purchased by hospitals themselves, which led to collusion of interests among certain people and eventually increased the price of drugs. The centralized procurement of drugs can make the procurement process transparent and rationalize the procurement procedures.
3, according to the type of disease payment
In the past, the cost of seeing a doctor was based on the cost of checkups, medicines, and registration fees, but the new reform requires that payment be made according to the type of disease, to avoid double billing.
Medicare Drug Catalog Adjusted
On March 1, 2023, the "National Drug Catalog for Basic Medical Insurance, Workers' Compensation Insurance and Maternity Insurance (2022)" (the "2022 Drug Catalog") was uniformly implemented. The 2022 Drug Catalog*** contains 6,294 types of drugs, 111 types of new western and proprietary Chinese medicines, 3 types of drugs were transferred out of the catalog, and some traditional Chinese medicine tablets and hospital preparations were supplemented in accordance with the regulations. Among them for the epidemic support policy, the new crown pneumonia treatment drugs Azulfidine tablets, clear lung detoxification particles new health insurance payment standards since April 1st.
The drug varieties, remarks and A and B classifications within the 2022 Drug Catalog shall not be adjusted by localities. For Class B drugs in the catalog for which the Provincial Health Insurance Bureau has not uniformly set the proportion of out-of-pocket payment for individuals, each coordinating region may determine the proportion of out-of-pocket payment for individuals on its own, taking into account factors such as the fund's affordability.
The new drugs added to the 2022 Drug List on the basis of the 2021 Drug List will be included in the scope of payment of the basic medical insurance, workers' compensation insurance and maternity insurance funds in accordance with the regulations, and the drugs transferred out of the fund will be transferred out of the scope of payment at the same time.
Reference for the above: Chinese government website - Social Insurance Law of the People's Republic of China