29 Counties in Zhejiang Province Launched Pilots for Public Reform

The Health Department of Zhejiang Province recently announced that the first batch of 29 pilot counties in Zhejiang Province have all started pilot reforms of county-level public hospitals, accounting for half of the counties (cities) in the province; the reforms involved a total of 132 county-level public hospitals, accounting for the entire More than half of the county-level public hospitals. Through the “one reduction, one adjustment and one supplement”, the establishment of a new mechanism for the economic operation of county-level public hospitals is the core of the reform of public hospitals in Zhejiang Province. The so-called “one reduction” is to reduce the cost of medicines. In the county-level public hospitals where pilots were carried out, with the exception of Chinese medicine decoction pieces, all medicines were purchased through provincial-level drug bidding, and zero-dip rate sales of drugs were implemented. "According to 2011 data estimates, it is expected to reduce drug costs by 370 million yuan," said Yu Xinle, deputy director of the Department of Medical Affairs of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Health.

"One tune up" means to adjust some medical service charging standards. For a long time, public hospitals have relied on the added revenue of drugs to maintain their operation, and the medical service charges have been far lower than the actual cost. How to properly and steadily adjust the price structure has always been one of the problems that have plagued hospital development. According to the principle of "total amount control and structural adjustment", Zhejiang Province will, with the approval of the Provincial Price Bureau, adjust the examination fees, nursing fees, treatment fees, surgical fees and hospital bed fees. In order to ensure that the reform does not increase the burden on patients, it is estimated that the price increase may not be higher than the total price of drug distribution, and the adjusted medical service items shall all be included in the coverage of medical insurance and new rural cooperative medical insurance.

"One supplement" means increasing financial input. In order to ensure the public welfare of public hospitals, the reform of drug prices in particular has increased government finance investment in public hospitals. The basic construction of the hospital and purchase of equipment, development of key disciplines, payment subsidies for institutional pension insurance units, policy losses, and the costs incurred by public health services undertaken are all included in the scope of financial input and subsidies.

As the earliest province in the country to carry out pilot reforms of public hospitals, Zhejiang Province has officially launched county-level public hospital reform pilots from December 1 last year. The pilot reform of county-level public hospitals for six months has further strengthened the leading role of county-level hospitals in the regional medical service system. Statistics show that the number of outpatient visits in pilot counties (cities) in the first quarter of 2012 increased by 24.65% compared with the same period of last year, and the number of discharged hospitals increased by 16.24% over the same period of last year. People’s medical needs have been further released, and more and more people have visited the county hospital. Yang Jing, director of the Department of Health of Zhejiang Province, explained that according to the deployment of the Zhejiang Provincial Government, all county-level public hospitals in Zhejiang Province will start reforms within the year. From next year, reforms will be gradually advanced to provincial and municipal hospitals.