By Ma Yuan, Gao Taishan, Zhou Jianqi, Ma Jun, Enterprise Research Institute, DRC

Research Report, No.214, 2020 (Total 5958) 2020-9-2

Abstract: Internet-based medical and healthcare services enjoy unique advantages including accurately matching supplies of doctors and demands of patients, optimizing cross-regional resource allocation and non-physical-contact diagnosis, which shows great potential for future development. In recent years, the government has issued a series of policies on the new business modes of Internet-based medical and healthcare services. Research findings show that current policies have played an important role in regulating online medical diagnosis and ensuring the quality and safety of medical services. However, more innovation is needed in terms of the policies on market access, the scope of online disease diagnosis and treatment, the coverage of medical insurance payment, and localized supervision. By following the law of the development of digital economy, related departments need to improve the role of Internet-based medical and healthcare services in the health service system, attract private funds for innovation-oriented development, explore pilot experiment on the third-party medical health service platform, allow online platforms to cover more disease diagnosis and treatment as well as corresponding medical insurance payment, and improve utilization and supervision based on big data to maintain the bottom line of ensuring medical security and protecting users’ data.

Keywords: Internet-based healthcare, digital economy, business environment