Notice by the General Office of the State Council of Issuing the Priority Tasks for Further Reforming the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Systems for 2024

Notice by the General Office of the State Council of Issuing the Priority Tasks for Further Reforming the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Systems for 2024

(No. 29 [2024] of the General Office of the State Council)

The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; all ministries and commissions of the State Council; and all institutions directly under the State Council:
The Priority Tasks for Further Reforming the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Systems for 2024, as approved by the State Council, are hereby issued to you. Please conscientiously organize the implementation thereof based on your actual conditions.

General Office of the State Council
June 03, 2024

(This text is an abridged version)

Priority Tasks for Further Reforming the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Systems for 2024

The year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a pivotal year for achieving the goals outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan. The reform of the pharmaceutical and healthcare systems shall be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council shall be fully implemented. Its focus shall be on the coordinated development and governance of medical insurance, healthcare services, and pharmaceuticals, with the goal of promoting high-quality healthcare development and enhancing the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security.
I. Strengthening Leadership in Healthcare Reform
1. Enhancing coordination in healthcare reform. Local governments at all levels shall be urged to comprehensively fulfill their responsibilities in advancing healthcare reform. Mechanisms for advancing reform shall be consolidated and improved, and significant issues arising from the reform shall be addressed in a timely manner. A unified, efficient mechanism for policy coordination, information connectivity, and regulatory linkage among medical insurance, healthcare services, and pharmaceuticals shall be established. Monitoring of healthcare reform shall be enhanced, and successful local reform experience and practices shall be summarized and promoted in a timely manner.
II. Further promoting Sanming's experience in healthcare reform
2. Promoting Sanming's experience in healthcare reform based on local conditions. All local authorities shall follow the path of "making room, adjusting structure, and ensuring connection", increase exploration in light of the actual situation, promote the overall linkage of reform, enhance collaboration between different levels of services, advance reform of public hospitals that focus on public welfare, and shift the focus from disease treatment to people's health. Support and guidance shall be provided for the in-depth advancement of the healthcare reform in Sanming.
3. Enhancing and expanding centralized procurement with targeted volume for pharmaceuticals and medical consumables. A new batch of nationally organized centralized procurement with targeted volume (“centralized procurement”) for pharmaceuticals and medical consumables shall be initiated, and follow-up work for the batches for which the agreements have expired shall be carried out in a timely manner. In 2024, each province shall conduct at least one batch of provincial-level (including inter-provincial alliances) centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables. The aim is to achieve a cumulative total of 500 drugs covered by national and provincial-level centralized procurement and to continue advancing centralized procurement of medical consumables. The implementation of centralized procurement shall be further strengthened to ensure retained savings from medical insurance funds, improve incentive and restraint mechanisms, and ensure that medical institutions truthfully report procurement volumes and prioritize the rational use of selected products. Quality supervision of selected pharmaceuticals and medical consumables in centralized procurement shall be enhanced. The functionality of the platform for the centralized procurement of pharmaceuticals shall be improved. Supervision over online procurement shall be strengthened, and the online procurement rate of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables shall be increased.
4. Advancing reform of medical service pricing. Guidance shall be provided to the three pilot provinces—Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, and Sichuan in carrying out a province-wide (or autonomous region-wide) pilot program for advancing reform of medical service pricing. Additionally, guidance shall be provided to the pilot five cities—Tangshan, Suzhou, Xiamen, Ganzhou, and Leshan on further exploring the establishment of new mechanisms for medical service pricing. Dynamic adjustment of medical service prices shall be advanced, and regions meeting the conditions for price adjustment shall be encouraged to complete the adjustment in a timely manner.
5. Advancing reform of payment methods for medical insurance. In 2024, all regions with medical insurance coverage shall implement payment reforms based on diagnosis-related grouping (DRG) or diagnosis-intervention packet (DIP) to reasonably determine payment rates and establish dynamic adjustment mechanisms. A total budget payment system under medical insurance shall be implemented for tightly integrated medical consortia, and mechanisms for calculating total budgets, retaining savings, and reasonably sharing excess expenditures shall be improved. A pilot program for payment for diseases or conditions particularly well-suited to treatment with traditional Chinese medicine shall be launched. The introduction of preferential policies for excluding payment from DRG/DIP payment for innovative drugs and advanced medical technology applications shall be explored.
6. Advancing reform of the public hospital compensation system. The formulation of methods to link the connotation of medical service income with the compensation system shall be explored. Emphasis shall be placed on stabilizing the income of medical personnel and providing effective incentives to further leverage the protective function of the compensation system. T......