Challenges and Solutions of China’s Medical Service Pricing
Author(s):
Lingran Su
Objective: China’s new round of medical system reform has been carried out for 12 years. The goal of this reform is to solve the problems of “difficult to see a doctor” and “expensive to see a doctor”. Medical service pricing plays a guiding role in the allocation of medical service resources. The focus of this study is to analyze the existing problems of China’s medical service pricing mechanism, and explore the reform direction of China’s medical service pricing mechanism in the future.
Methods: This study analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of three common medical service pricing methods in China at the present stage, and analyzes the realization of core demands of subjects such as medical insurance bureau, public medical institutions, medical staff, patients and so on under the framework of stakeholder theory.
Findings: China’s current medical service pricing mechanism makes pricing and service value deviate significantly, patients’ demands are lack of expression channels, the scale expansion of public hospitals still exists, and the use efficiency of medical insurance funds still has room to improve.
Conclusion: The future reform of China’s medical service pricing mechanism should strike a balance between reform and stability, pay attention to the coordination of different reform contents, improve the discourse power of the Medical Insurance Bureau, build a platform for patients’ interest expression, and explore a pricing mechanism close to the value of medical services, so as to give full play to the positive guiding role of price in resource allocation and promote the achievement of the goal of medical system reform
