Social capital admission ticket in the hand medical field will be strong

The business club’s December 9 hearing, “On Further Encouraging and Guiding Social Capital to Organize Opinions of Medical Institutions,” may be an indirect power for reform of public hospitals.

On the evening of December 3, the State Council approved and transmitted the “Opinions on Further Encouraging and Guiding Social Capital to Organize Medical Institutions” jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of People Protection and Protection (hereinafter referred to as “Opinions”). Therefore, the state formally adjusts the social capital to participate in medical treatment – ​​encouragement and guidance.

Equal treatment with public hospitals

According to the "Opinions", the state will relax the scope of access of social capital to medical institutions. In addition, the Opinions stipulate that the social security, health, and civil affairs departments must include insurance coverage, childbirth, and work injury insurance coverage for non-public medical institutions that meet the health insurance fixed-point requirements, and implement the same reimbursement policy as that of public medical institutions. The nature of the investment entity must not be used as an auditing condition for the designated institution of medical insurance.

"Uniformity" has thus become the biggest highlight of "Opinions".

Professor Liu Guoen, director of the Department of Health Economics and Management at the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, believes that in the past, it was very difficult for private medical institutions to enter the medical insurance coverage. The relevant departments always took a different perspective to examine and approve. Now that the medical insurance issue has been explicitly requested, the private medical institutions will have The main living conditions have more and more sufficient funds.

As early as February of this year, the Guidance on Public Hospitals Reform Pilot Project proposed by the “Guidance on the pilot reform of public hospitals” puts forward one of the nine major contents of the pilot reform of public hospitals, namely “Accelerating the diversification of the medical service structure, encouraging, supporting and guiding the development of social capital to medical care”. Health services, encourage social forces to organize non-profit hospitals."

Releasing public medical services has already reached a consensus that it is conducive to expanding the supply of medical services and meeting the diversified medical needs of the nation, and at the same time it will also help enhance service competition and reduce medical expenses.

In China, public hospitals account for almost 70% of the total number of hospitals, and the number of hospital beds in public hospitals is as high as nearly 90% of the total number of hospital beds in the country.

Hong Kong and Macao's Exclusive Investment Ready to Go

It is worth noting that the government has always been more cautious about foreign-run hospitals, and the Opinions read “adjusting foreign capital to organize medical institutions from current restrictions to permissible foreign-invested projects” and “exclusive foreign-funded medical institutions piloting, Gradually let go and other expressions, clarify the position of encouraging foreign capital to run hospitals.

The "Opinions" mentioned that the examination and approval procedures for foreign-funded medical treatment will be simplified and standardized, and the approval authority for establishment of Sino-foreign joint ventures and cooperative medical institutions will be devolved from the state to the provincial level. The establishment of a wholly foreign-owned medical institution shall be approved by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Commerce. Liu Guoen said that in the past, including sole proprietorship and joint ventures, the Ministry of Health had centralized approvals and the efficiency was slow. This time fundamentally changed the authority for the approval of the three parties, dispersed the pressure on approvals, and improved the efficiency of approvals.

In fact, in coastal cities such as Xiamen and Guangzhou, there have been bolder incentives for foreign-funded doctors, especially Hong Kong- and Taiwan-funded companies in mainland China. For example, in accordance with the provisions of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), Guangdong Province actively encourages Hong Kong and Macao medical service providers to invest in medical services in Guangdong and provide more for mainland patients and Hong Kong people in the Mainland. Medical service options.

A reporter from the "Medicine Economic News" was informed that the Guangzhou Wanzhi (Hong Kong) Medical Outpatient Clinic, one of the first Hong Kong-owned enterprises in Susui, was officially opened in late November. According to Guan Kuanle, head of the outpatient department of Guangzhou Wanzhi (Hong Kong), he submitted an application for setting up a medical institution to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Health last August. In February this year, he was issued with a medical institution approval.

Up to now, six wholly-owned outpatient clinics in Hong Kong and Macau have been approved to open clinics in Guangdong, of which 5 are Hong Kong-owned and 1 is Australian-owned. They are preparing to open in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhongshan.

Private ownership does not mean killing public welfare

In fact, for a long time the reason why the state has not let go of social capital to participate in medical treatment has been delayed, mainly because of concerns about the public welfare of opening up and affecting medical services. The direction of public hospital reform is to ensure the public welfare of public hospitals.

The reporter also found that the introduction of the "Opinions" has once again caused some people to worry about opening social capital and affecting the public welfare of medical services. In particular, private hospitals enjoy the same treatment as public hospitals (taxation, medical insurance, talent management, etc.). Many people think that this will deprive public hospitals under the old system of their competitive advantage. The nature of private hospitals is still profit-making hospitals, and it is not conducive to safeguarding the public welfare of medical services.

In this regard, Cai Jiangnan, a senior researcher in health policy of the Massachusetts Department of Health and Welfare in the United States, believes that non-profit medical services are actually related to who pays bills and payments. It does not mean that public welfare medical services can only be provided by public medical institutions. The responsibility of the government is to help raise funds for public-welfare medical services and ensure the efficiency of the use of funds to better meet people's needs.

“The funds that were originally directly invested by the government in the provision of medical services are transferred to the buyers who invest in medical services. The buyers directly deal with the sellers, which will create pressure on the suppliers for market purchases and promote the efficiency of hospital services. Quality, to better meet the needs of patients." Cai Jiangnan believes that China's health care reform can consider "three points of the world" as the goal of hospital reform, that is, public hospitals, non-profit private hospitals and for-profit private hospitals each account for three-thirds one.

Private investment peak approaching

Under the clear guidance of national policies, private capital is expected to usher in the peak of medical services. Experts in investment institutions that have researched investment in the medical field told reporters that high-end medical care, specialist medical care, health management and plastic surgery will become the four hot spots for social capital and foreign capital investment in medical service.

As the largest private enterprise in China, Fosun Pharma, a subsidiary of Fosun Group, has entered the medical service field since last year. It has successively launched with two world-renowned medical service listed companies, Parkway Shanghai Hospital Management Co., Ltd., and Sino-U.S. mutual benefit company. Cooperation.

Zhou Yiting, a spokesperson for Fosun Pharma, told reporters that Fosun Pharma has added medical equipment and medical service business segments last year, and medical services will become one of Fosun Pharmaceutical's important investment areas. "This time, the government encourages the introduction of medical advice from the community. It is a very good thing for Fosun Pharma to invest in medical services later. We will also accelerate investment in this area and make China's medical services and related management as early as possible. With international standards." Zhou Yiting said.

In May of this year, Fosun Pharma and Hejia Medical also signed a cooperation agreement with Shanghai Huashan Hospital for the cooperation of the three parties to manage the International Department of Eastern Hospital of Huashan Hospital. High-end medical care will become a major area of ​​investment in the medical services segment of Fosun Pharma.