Joint efforts to ease burden of medical expenses

When the Beijing government announced its new medical reform policy late last month, a number of government organizations pledged to offer their support.

The reform plan focuses on easing the burden on patients and their families and ensuring the healthy operation of medical institutions by decreasing the cost of medicines and the cost of checkups using medical equipment, and increasing the fees charged for services based on the intelligence and labor of medical workers.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning will be responsible for the implementation of the plan.

As it is a comprehensive scheme, the plan will also be carried out with the coordination of other government institutions including the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau and the Beijing Food and Drug Administration.

Wang Mingshan, deputy chief of the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau in charge of the basic medical insurance system for the city's employees and residents, said his bureau will ensure that the reimbursements for the new medical service fee and the medical treatments covered are properly paid.

The new medical service fee, which replaces the registration fee and consulting fee, will be between 20 yuan ($2.9) and 50 yuan depending on the level of the medical institution, and the reimbursement amount will be between 19 yuan and 40 yuan, according to Wang.

He said more than 150 new items, including services relating to nursing, newborn baby treatment and traditional Chinese medical services will also be reimbursed.

"All of our designated medical institutions will be covered in the new reform initiative, ensuring that all the abovementioned costs are properly reimbursed," Wang added.

The Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau is also offering assistance to the city's low-income residents, or residents struggling to a living.

The government-sponsored basic medical insurance system will cover a large portion of these people's medical costs, with the the remaining costs reimbursed by an assistance fund from the civil affairs bureau.

According to Dong Minghui, deputy chief of the bureau, the portion of reimbursement from the assistance fund will be raised.

"We have increased the portion from 70 percent to 80 percent to cover the beneficiaries' costs after basic medical insurance reimbursement," Dong said.

She added that the ceiling of financial assistance for an outpatient has increased from 4,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan a year, while that for an inpatient grew from 40,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan.

Dong said the financial assistance to patients with critical diseases is even higher, with the proportion rising from 75 percent to 85 percent and the ceiling raised from 80,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan a year.

With reduction of prices for medicines as a highlight of the medical reform, officials from the city's drug and food administration said supervision on both medicine wholesaling companies and medical institutions will be further strengthened.

Liang Hong, deputy chief of the administration, said more unannounced checks will be made on the medicines' supply chains to ensure they meet national and local regulations.

"We will promote a medicine supply chain tracking system to make sure the production and distribution processes are transparent to every patient," Liang said.

"We will also enhance the monitoring of adverse reactions of medicines, and we have developed a monitoring network covering 4,633 units including medical institutions, medicine producers and distributors," he added.