Direct Medical Bill Payments by Out-of-State Patients in China Jump Nearly Fourfold After System Expanded(Yicai) April 11 -- On-the-spot settlement of medical bills by patients outside of their home city or province in China jumped almost four times last year after local public health insurance systems were further linked up and expanded to cover more illnesses.
About 118 million patients were able to leave the hospital without paying out of pocket at outpatient departments outside their home provinces last year, according to the latest data from the National Healthcare Security Administration.
The sum includes 3.3 million patients who suffer from five chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, reducing these patients’ payment burdens by CNY3.4 billion (USD469.9 million), Long Xuewen, deputy director in charge of a center at the NHSA, said during a press briefing today. Besides those two, the current system covers radiotherapy and chemotherapy, dialysis to treat kidney failure, and anti-rejection drugs after organ transplantation. This year, the NHSA will further enlarge the scope of cross-provincial direct billing to include three to five types of illnesses, he added.
Since 2013, China has gradually piloted and promoted direct billing to expand coverage to chronic diseases from acute conditions so that residents can access treatment more easily in other provinces.
Last year's surge was mainly caused by authorities’ policy optimization, Liao Zangyi, associate professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said to Yicai. On top of that, pent-up demand for specialized medical treatment, which accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, was released in 2023, Liao added.
Moreover, 11.3 million patients who got hospitalized far from home benefited from direct billing last year, or nearly two times as many as in 2022. More than four-fifths of inpatients enjoyed such service that year, reaching the country's goal two years in advance, Long said.
China had 550,400 medical institutions that support direct billing as of Dec. 31, last year, up by 68 percent from a year earlier, Long concluded.
Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine
