Another City Joins Cross-Provincial Joint Procurement: Hebei Handan Launches Volume-Based Collective Procurement on Sanming Alliance Platform

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on April 25, the Handan Municipal Healthcare Security Administration of Hebei Province, a member of the Sanming Alliance, officially signed a cooperation agreement with Haixi Pharmaceutical Trading Center, the designated service provider for the Alliance. The Sanming Alliance Joint Price-Capped Procurement Platform for Drugs and Medical Devices (hereinafter referred to as the “Sanming Alliance Platform”) will be launched, enabling comprehensive operations in joint procurement, price negotiation, transaction, settlement, and regulatory oversight of pharmaceutical products on the platform.

Since 2015, the General Office of the State Council has issued multiple documents requiring the summarization and promotion of the healthcare reform experience in Sanming, while encouraging cross-provincial regional joint procurement based on local conditions. Cities across China have successively signed agreements with Sanming City to implement joint price-capped procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables, forming procurement alliances. In March 2016, under the guidance of the State Council’s Healthcare Reform Office and the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Sanming Alliance was officially established. In June of the same year, the Healthcare Reform Office of Hebei Province signed an agreement with Sanming City, whereby six pilot cities, including Handan, and 28 demonstration counties jointly joined the Sanming Alliance.

Currently, the alliance’s membership spans 32 counties across 21 cities in 15 provinces throughout China. Member cities will go live on the Sanming Alliance Platform in batches, aligned with the progress of institutional reforms, to realize the synergy of the alliance. As the alliance’s sole official service platform, the Sanming Alliance Platform is jointly developed by the Haixi Pharmaceutical Trading Center and the Sanming Alliance. The platform covers procurement services for pharmaceuticals, medical consumables (including reagents), and traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces. By adhering to the principles of “unified platform, unified catalog, unified pricing, and unified standards,” it provides official platform support for cross-regional centralized procurement within the alliance, enabling members to achieve intelligent volume-based price negotiation, one-stop transaction settlement, and multi-dimensional, refined end-to-end supervision, thereby rapidly meeting diverse needs across different regions. To date, the Sanming Alliance Platform has achieved interoperability with the Fujian Provincial Procurement Platform, delivering average annual savings of 20%–40% in pharmaceutical and medical consumable procurement costs for participating cities.

Handan, a prefecture-level city in Hebei Province, is strategically located at the crossroads of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces, lying at the heart of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban cluster and the Bohai Rim Economic Zone. It has a permanent resident population of nearly 10 million. In 2012, Handan took the lead in launching pilot reforms for public hospitals. In 2017, it was recognized as an advanced city in healthcare reform within Hebei Province, ranking first across the province. In 2018, Handan once again received the title of Advanced City in Deepening Healthcare Reform in Hebei Province, and its healthcare reform experiences were commended by the State Council’s supervisory inspection team.

To further effectively reduce drug prices in Handan City and advance the implementation of healthcare reform objectives, the Handan Municipal Healthcare Security Administration has established a deep strategic partnership with the Haixi Pharmaceutical Trading Center. This collaboration aims to enable intelligent volume aggregation, smart price negotiation, automated tendering and procurement, online trading, electronic settlement, and end-to-end regulatory oversight for joint drug procurement in Handan, thereby achieving fully digitalized, intelligent, and systematic operations across all stages. In the future, the partnership will expand to provide operational services for cross-regional volume-based price negotiations and centralized procurement, support the local implementation of national organized centralized drug procurement programs, and continue to broaden the range of drugs included in volume-based negotiated joint procurement, thereby fully leveraging the synergistic effects.

At the signing ceremony, Yang Liulin, Director of the Handan Municipal Healthcare Security Administration, stated, “The new healthcare security team in Handan is committed to implementing people-benefit initiatives, convenience-oriented services, and special insurance programs, truly serving the public and delivering tangible benefits.” Moving forward, the Handan Municipal Healthcare Security Administration will plan and establish the “four beams and eight pillars” framework for Handan’s healthcare reform, further advance the implementation of the “three-medical-linkage” reform, and alleviate the medication cost burden for Handan residents.

First, establish a price control system and create mechanisms for procurement oversight and payment method reform;

Second, establish a fund supervision system by creating mechanisms for fund oversight and medical practice regulation;

Third, establish a technical support system by creating an information-based management and control mechanism and a support mechanism involving a pool of one hundred experts;

Fourth, establish a system for clarifying responsibilities and enforcing accountability, creating mechanisms that align authority with accountability and ensure clear distinctions between rewards and penalties.

“Three-Medical Linkage,” with Pharmaceutical Reform as the Priority. Through healthcare system reforms, Handan is establishing “four systems” and creating new mechanisms to ensure tangible benefits for the public, motivation for medical personnel, sustainable funding guarantees, and the development of health services, thereby paving a health pathway that benefits all residents. The Haixi Pharmaceutical Trading Center will align with the policies of the Handan Medical Insurance Bureau to provide high-quality pharmaceutical procurement services, supporting Handan in becoming a benchmark for “Three-Medical Linkage” reform in North China.