“Regarding the opinions of medical institutions and related enterprises expecting the acceleration of charge-based access of new technologies, new equipment, and new consumables, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) is guiding provinces to further smooth channels for adding new medical service price items and open green channel to expedite the item reviews of major innovative projects that optimize diagnosis and treatment schemes for serious diseases or fill gaps in diagnosis and treatment,” said Yan Qinghui, Deputy Commissioner of the NHSA, at the “Promoting High-quality Development” series press conference held by the State Council Information Office, P.R.C. on September 10.
It is learned that for improved innovative projects, the NHSA will improve existing price items to achieve compatibility and quickly meet reasonable charging needs, and for other new price items, it will accelerate the acceptance and review process to fully meet the reasonable charging needs for new technologies, new equipment, and new consumables at different innovation levels.
Since 2022, provinces across China have added over 1,000 new price items annually, which allows a group of high-quality innovative technologies, equipment, and consumables to be used clinically to better benefit people with innovative medical technologies.
In the next step, the NHSA will earnestly implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, expedite the preparation of the specifications for medical service price items, and continue to guide provincial healthcare security administrations to optimize the management of new items based on clinical value and innovation quality; it will accelerate the acceptance of applications for new items related to major innovative technologies such as medical devices subject to priority review and approval by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), to promote the development of new quality productive forces in the medical field.
Yan Qinghui emphasized that the NHSA would also strengthen the quality control of innovations to prevent low-quality fake innovations from disrupting the market environment and embezzling medical insurance funds. “We hope related enterprises can effectively improve innovation quality, disclose information such as prices of high-value medical consumables involved in new price items, and accept social supervision and peer review.”
Data shows that the current prices of cochlear implants on the centralized procurement platforms range from RMB 80,000 to RMB 270,000. Besides the cochlear implant prices, patients also need to pay for surgery and later maintenance costs, leading to high overall treatment expenses.
The reporter noted that based on information released by the NHSA’s WeChat official account during Children’s Day this year, by the first half of this year, Xinjiang, Jilin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan have included cochlear implantation in their local scope of medical insurance reimbursement, with the highest payment standard reaching RMB 450,000.
In recent years, with the support of medical insurance payments and financial subsidies, the number of cochlear implantation procedures has continued to grow and the market size of cochlear implants has developed rapidly in China. According to Joinchain’s data, the market size of cochlear implants in China has grown from RMB 350 million in 2019 to RMB 744 million in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.72%, and the market size is expected to reach RMB 976 million in 2024, up 31.16%.
The NHSA has institutionalized and routinized the centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and consumables in recent years. The state has successively organized the centralized procurement of nine batches of pharmaceuticals and four batches of high-value medical consumables while guiding and promoting localities to conduct centralized procurement of varieties outside the national centralized procurement.
It is learned that driven by centralized procurement, the NHSA has achieved deeper and higher-quality cost savings and dividends. The cost savings from centralized procurement are used as reform dividends to the people while creating space for new drugs and new diagnosis and treatment items embodying new quality productive forces to enter clinical application and creating conditions for adjusting medical service prices. Since 2021, the NHSA has been guiding provinces across the country to dynamically adjust medical service prices, conduct pilot programs of medical service price reforms, and explore the establishment of a new mechanism for medical service price formation that adapts to economic and social development, better plays the government’s role, fully involves medical institutions, and reasonably reflects the value of technical labor services. Since the reform, the prices of technical items such as surgery and traditional Chinese medicine have been increased in an orderly manner, while the prices of examination and testing items such as CT have been reasonably reduced, with the pace of price adjustments matching economic and social development.
It is reported that in the next step, the NHSA will vigorously advance the expansion of the scope and the improvement of the quality of medical centralized procurement, strengthen regional coordination, with a focus on guiding localities to promote alliance-based centralized procurement of Chinese patent drugs, traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, in vitro diagnostic reagents, and other pharmaceuticals and consumables, steadily advance follow-up procurement, enhance the fine management of centralized procurement implementation, work with related authorities to strengthen management measures for the use, supply, and monitoring of bid-winning products, and urge the timely entry and priority use of bid-winning products in hospitals, while also taking measures to ensure bid-winning enterprises’ implementation of quality and supply responsibilities.
Source: Pharmaceutical Economic News
It is learned that for improved innovative projects, the NHSA will improve existing price items to achieve compatibility and quickly meet reasonable charging needs, and for other new price items, it will accelerate the acceptance and review process to fully meet the reasonable charging needs for new technologies, new equipment, and new consumables at different innovation levels.
Accelerating the acceptance of applications for items related to innovative medical devices and other new items
Yan Qinghui stated that the NHSA has been unequivocally supporting medical technology innovation and promoting the high-quality development of medical services by improving medical service price policies. The NHSA has organized experts to accelerate preparing the specifications for price items of national medical services. Based on the principle of releasing as long as all required conditions are met, they have so far released nine batches of initiation guidelines for obstetrics, nursing, etc., to standardize medical service price items in related disciplines and highlight the leading role of medical services. Since 2022, provinces across China have added over 1,000 new price items annually, which allows a group of high-quality innovative technologies, equipment, and consumables to be used clinically to better benefit people with innovative medical technologies.
In the next step, the NHSA will earnestly implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, expedite the preparation of the specifications for medical service price items, and continue to guide provincial healthcare security administrations to optimize the management of new items based on clinical value and innovation quality; it will accelerate the acceptance of applications for new items related to major innovative technologies such as medical devices subject to priority review and approval by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), to promote the development of new quality productive forces in the medical field.
Yan Qinghui emphasized that the NHSA would also strengthen the quality control of innovations to prevent low-quality fake innovations from disrupting the market environment and embezzling medical insurance funds. “We hope related enterprises can effectively improve innovation quality, disclose information such as prices of high-value medical consumables involved in new price items, and accept social supervision and peer review.”
Cochlear implants to be included in the fifth batch of medical consumables subject to national centralized procurement
“The new batch of pharmaceuticals and high-value medical consumables procured under national organization will include cochlear implants and other high-value medical consumables,” said Yan Qinghui. Data shows that the current prices of cochlear implants on the centralized procurement platforms range from RMB 80,000 to RMB 270,000. Besides the cochlear implant prices, patients also need to pay for surgery and later maintenance costs, leading to high overall treatment expenses.
The reporter noted that based on information released by the NHSA’s WeChat official account during Children’s Day this year, by the first half of this year, Xinjiang, Jilin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan have included cochlear implantation in their local scope of medical insurance reimbursement, with the highest payment standard reaching RMB 450,000.
In recent years, with the support of medical insurance payments and financial subsidies, the number of cochlear implantation procedures has continued to grow and the market size of cochlear implants has developed rapidly in China. According to Joinchain’s data, the market size of cochlear implants in China has grown from RMB 350 million in 2019 to RMB 744 million in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.72%, and the market size is expected to reach RMB 976 million in 2024, up 31.16%.
The NHSA has institutionalized and routinized the centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and consumables in recent years. The state has successively organized the centralized procurement of nine batches of pharmaceuticals and four batches of high-value medical consumables while guiding and promoting localities to conduct centralized procurement of varieties outside the national centralized procurement.
It is learned that driven by centralized procurement, the NHSA has achieved deeper and higher-quality cost savings and dividends. The cost savings from centralized procurement are used as reform dividends to the people while creating space for new drugs and new diagnosis and treatment items embodying new quality productive forces to enter clinical application and creating conditions for adjusting medical service prices. Since 2021, the NHSA has been guiding provinces across the country to dynamically adjust medical service prices, conduct pilot programs of medical service price reforms, and explore the establishment of a new mechanism for medical service price formation that adapts to economic and social development, better plays the government’s role, fully involves medical institutions, and reasonably reflects the value of technical labor services. Since the reform, the prices of technical items such as surgery and traditional Chinese medicine have been increased in an orderly manner, while the prices of examination and testing items such as CT have been reasonably reduced, with the pace of price adjustments matching economic and social development.
It is reported that in the next step, the NHSA will vigorously advance the expansion of the scope and the improvement of the quality of medical centralized procurement, strengthen regional coordination, with a focus on guiding localities to promote alliance-based centralized procurement of Chinese patent drugs, traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, in vitro diagnostic reagents, and other pharmaceuticals and consumables, steadily advance follow-up procurement, enhance the fine management of centralized procurement implementation, work with related authorities to strengthen management measures for the use, supply, and monitoring of bid-winning products, and urge the timely entry and priority use of bid-winning products in hospitals, while also taking measures to ensure bid-winning enterprises’ implementation of quality and supply responsibilities.
Source: Pharmaceutical Economic News