State Council Encourages Multi-tiered and Diversified Medical Services: Key Points Summarized by Vbdata

Recently, the General Office of the State Council released the “Opinions on Supporting Social Forces in Providing Multi-level and Diversified Medical Services.” VCBeat has compiled, based on the original text of the Opinions,13 Key Points and 2 Precautions：

Encourage private general practice clinics to provide personalized contract-based services, establish in-depth collaborative relationships among clinics, hospitals, and commercial insurance institutions, and build medical consortiums.

In specialized fields such as ophthalmology, orthopedics, stomatology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, oncology, psychiatry, and medical aesthetics, as well as in areas including rehabilitation, nursing, and health examinations, accelerate the development of a cohort of competitive branded service institutions. Encourage investors to establish branded specialized medical groups and operate large general hospitals with distinct specialized advantages. Support social forces in establishing independently operated professional institutions for medical laboratory testing, pathological diagnosis, medical imaging, sterile supply services, blood purification, and hospice care, providing relevant services to their respective regions.

Leverage the unique advantages of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and encourage non-governmental entities to center their services around renowned TCM practitioners, proprietary herbal medicines, specialized departments, and distinctive therapeutic techniques. These entities should provide high-quality, streamlined services in TCM medical care, health preservation, rehabilitation, elderly care, and health tourism. Support capable privately-run TCM clinics and outpatient departments (such as TCM halls and National Medicine Halls) in expanding their scale and strength, achieving cross-provincial and cross-municipal chain operations. In areas with appropriate conditions, establish concentrated zones for TCM outpatient departments and clinics that offer exclusively traditional TCM services, creating service areas with a rich TCM cultural atmosphere. Promote a shift from a sole focus on disease treatment to an equal emphasis on health maintenance, developing diversified services such as preventive treatment of disease and rehabilitation. Advance the development of national TCM health tourism demonstration zones, bases, and projects.

Encourage capable private medical institutions to target the frontiers of medicine and steadily and orderly promote the development of services such as precision medicine and personalized medicine. Promote the standardized and regulated application of novel individualized biological therapy products approved in accordance with laws and regulations. Promote the adoption of high-performance medical devices. Continuously advance the establishment of mechanisms for translating mature and reliable cutting-edge medical technologies into clinical applications.

Encourage privately-run medical institutions to establish convenient and efficient healthcare processes, create comfortable and welcoming care environments, and provide a range of personalized value-added and ancillary services—such as remote consultations, dedicated patient navigation and accompaniment, and home hospital beds—to patients in need, thereby comprehensively enhancing service quality.

Promote the integration of medical care and elderly care, support privately-run medical institutions in providing contracted medical services to elderly households, establish and improve cooperation mechanisms with elderly care institutions, and develop integrated medical and elderly care facilities.

Promote the integration of healthcare and tourism, develop the health tourism industry, enrich health tourism products with a focus on high-end medical services, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) services, rehabilitation and convalescence, and leisure wellness, and cultivate the health tourism consumer market.

Promote the integration of the Internet and healthcare, develop the smart health industry, foster the deep integration of information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, mobile internet, and the Internet of Things with health services, and vigorously develop the telemedicine service system.

Promote the integration of sports and medicine, and support social forces in establishing sports-medicine integrated health management institutions centered on scientific fitness.

Entities that meet planning conditions and access qualifications shall not be restricted under any pretext. Reasonable flexibility may be granted in the planned capacity reserves for the allocation of large-scale medical equipment to privately operated medical institutions. The establishment of individual clinics is not subject to restrictions on planning and layout. When approving the establishment of specialized hospitals and other medical institutions, the focus of review should be placed on personnel qualifications and technical service capabilities, with relevant standards and norms dynamically adjusted under the premise of ensuring medical quality and safety. In response to public health needs and the development requirements of privately operated healthcare, basic standards for certain medical institutions, such as ophthalmic hospitals, shall be improved. Standards for new types of institutions shall be formulated in a timely manner to guide and support the healthy development of new formats and models of medical services.

Public hospitals are permitted to collaborate with social forces to establish new non-profit medical institutions, in accordance with planning and demand. Public hospitals are encouraged to forge contractual partnerships with privately run medical institutions in areas such as talent, management, services, technology, and branding, thereby supporting social forces in delivering multi-tiered and diversified medical services. Regulations governing the provision of special-needs medical services by public hospitals shall be strictly enforced; except for a reasonably retained portion, these services shall be gradually transitioned to market-based provision.

Implement comprehensive regional registration for physician practice. Based on contracts (agreements), physicians may practice at multiple institutions, thereby promoting the orderly mobility of physicians and multi-site practice. Physicians may apply to establish medical institutions in accordance with relevant regulations, and are encouraged to open clinics at the grassroots level. Physicians are encouraged to utilize their spare time, and retired physicians are encouraged, to practice or establish studios at grassroots medical and health institutions. Part-time medical personnel who maintain stable practice at privately-run medical institutions may represent such institutions in various academic activities during the contract (agreement) period, and may participate in professional title evaluations in accordance with relevant regulations.

Relevant provisions on including eligible private medical institutions in the designated network of basic medical insurance require that healthcare security administration agencies sign service agreements with such institutions, affording them equal treatment to public medical institutions in terms of procedures, timeframes, and standards.

Establish an information exchange mechanism between insurers offering commercial health insurance and privately operated medical institutions, facilitating patients in addressing needs beyond the scope of basic medical insurance coverage through their participation in commercial health insurance.

Encourage commercial insurance institutions and health management organizations to jointly develop health management insurance products, strengthening health risk assessment and intervention. Support commercial insurance institutions and medical institutions in co-developing insurance products targeting special-needs medical care, innovative therapies, advanced diagnostic and testing services, and the use of high-value medical devices. Accelerate the development of various forms of medical practice liability insurance, including medical malpractice insurance and medical accident insurance.

Incorporate privately run medical institutions into the demonstration project for the application of innovative medical device products and the pilot program for the allocation of large-scale medical equipment. Encourage these institutions to collaborate with pharmaceutical and medical device companies in establishing demonstration bases and training centers for the application of innovative drugs and medical devices, thereby fostering a virtuous cycle of demonstration application, clinical evaluation, technological innovation, and widespread dissemination.

All regions shall strictly implement, in accordance with relevant regulations, all preferential tax policies for privately operated medical institutions. Value-added tax (VAT) shall be exempted on medical services provided by privately operated medical institutions as prescribed, and the corporate income tax support policies for privately operated non-profit medical institutions shall be further implemented and improved.

In accordance with the actual social demand for multi-tiered and diversified medical services, the supply of land for medical and health purposes shall be expanded in an orderly and moderate manner. Land for various types of medical institutions, including private clinics, may undergo land supply procedures in accordance with the regulations for land designated for medical and health purposes.

For newly supplied land that meets the criteria of the Catalogue of Allocated Land Use, it may be supplied through allocation in accordance with the law; for land that does not meet the criteria and has only one intended user, it may be supplied through agreement in accordance with the law. Land transfer fees may be paid in installments within the prescribed period as agreed in the contract. Support is provided for land supply methods such as long-term leasing, leasing before transfer, and a combination of leasing and transfer.

Improve the accreditation and evaluation system for medical institutions, applying equal standards to both privately-run and public medical institutions.

Strengthen supervision and management of non-profit medical institutions run by social forces in terms of property rights ownership, financial operations, and the use of fund surpluses. Non-profit medical institutions shall not distribute their revenue and expenditure surpluses as dividends or in disguised forms. Strengthen control over the profit margins of for-profit medical institutions.

Below is the original text of the "Opinions":

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-05/23/content_5196100.htm