WeDoctor's Platform-Based Internet Hospitals Build a 'Health Accountability Consortium' Centered on User Value

Recently, in the “2021 Two Sessions·Health Policy” series of interviews, Liao Jieyuan, Chairman and CEO of WeDoctor Group, pointed out that internet hospitals have entered the 3.0 stage—the user value created by the “Health Responsibility Community,” led by platform-based internet hospitals, is gradually becoming apparent. By leveraging internet hospitals and internet medical consortia, the “Health Responsibility Community” implements a accountable care system at the level of medical insurance pooling areas, taking responsibility for health outcomes, and has received high acclaim from the government, industry, and academia.

In the post-pandemic era, digital healthcare is becoming the new normal for medical consultations and care, rapidly undergoing iterative upgrades. In 2015, WeDoctor established China’s first internet hospital—the Wuzhen Internet Hospital. After more than five years of development, internet hospitals have become an integral component of the healthcare service system.

In particular, through deep integration with medical insurance, digital healthcare has enabled the general public to truly reap the benefits of a closed-loop service model encompassing “medical care, pharmaceuticals, and insurance coverage.” During the pandemic, WeDoctor pioneered the nationwide implementation of online medical insurance payments, meeting 97% of the follow-up consultation and medication procurement needs for 408,000 patients with chronic and severe conditions in Wuhan at its peak. Currently, WeDoctor operates 28 internet hospitals, 17 of which are accredited for medical insurance reimbursement and have enabled online insurance payment processing. The willingness of medical insurance funds to cover these services constitutes the strongest endorsement of the quality and efficiency of internet hospital services.

In addition to effectively enhancing users’ payment capacity and convenience, digital healthcare services have significantly optimized patients’ medical experience. Taking WeDoctor’s practice in Tai’an, Shandong Province as an example, its membership-based digital chronic disease management service, delivered through an internet hospital, reduced the average consultation time for local chronic disease patients from 2–3 hours to 30 minutes within 15 months. The average prescription cost per hospital visit decreased by 12.7%, and patients’ out-of-pocket expenses dropped by more than 5%. This also marks China’s first city-level model of direct medical insurance reimbursement for digital chronic disease management, enabling patients to benefit from end-to-end chronic disease care that integrates “online and offline” as well as “in-hospital and out-of-hospital” services.

By extensively connecting medical resources, WeDoctor’s multi-scenario, wide-coverage medical and health maintenance services have significantly improved the accessibility of high-quality healthcare. Users can seek medical consultation and prescription services via smart devices such as mobile phones, regardless of their location. Meanwhile, through its “Mobile Hospital” initiative, WeDoctor has brought digitalized medical, pharmaceutical, and diagnostic services directly to communities, effectively addressing challenges such as weak primary-care diagnostic capabilities and the scarcity of high-quality medical resources. To date, the WeDoctor platform has connected more than 7,600 hospitals and over 270,000 physicians, with more than 220 million real-name registered users.

Digital healthcare services not only improve the accessibility and affordability of medical care for users but also enhance the clinical effectiveness of these services. It is reported that WeDoctor Internet General Hospital implemented standardized, intelligent diabetes management for a sample patient cohort. Over a 12-month period, this initiative significantly improved the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) control rate—a key biomarker—among participating patients, thereby substantially enhancing their health outcomes.

Not long ago, in the commendation of “Advanced Models for Improving Medical Services” by the National Health Commission, Tianjin WeDoctor Internet General Hospital was awarded the title of “Demonstration Hospital,” becoming the only internet hospital among the 484 recognized institutions. As a benchmark for Internet Hospitals 3.0, Tianjin WeDoctor Internet General Hospital has led 267 primary healthcare institutions across the city to form a closely-knit medical consortium, achieving unified management, shared responsibility, shared benefits, and standardized services, thereby providing users with full-lifecycle medical and health maintenance services. This initiative is driving the reform of diagnosis-related group (DRG) payment under medical insurance and the implementation of a “health-centric” accountable care system, enabling every citizen to access preventive care, diagnosis, treatment for minor illnesses, referral for serious conditions, and management of chronic diseases at the primary care level.

The Proposal for the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 calls for improving national health promotion policies, strengthening the national public health protection network, and providing comprehensive, full-cycle health services to the people. Digital healthcare has driven a comprehensive improvement in the accessibility, clinical effectiveness, and cost-efficiency of medical services, creating substantial user value. In this new era, the “Health Responsibility Community,” led by platform-based internet hospitals, will further promote the upgrading of the digital accountable care system, serving as managers and “gatekeepers” of national health.