Cancellation of outpatient prepayment and standardization of hospitalization prepayment will be offi

Among the eight practical things that the National Health Commission announced for the whole system to serve the people in 2025, it includes the cancellation of outpatient prepayments, and medical institutions will reduce the prepayment amount for hospitalization of medical insurance patients to the average level of personal payment for the same disease. Today, the National Health Commission held a press conference to answer reporters' questions on related issues.

Why did you need to pay advance payment for hospitalization and outpatient treatment?

In the 1980s, in order to reduce the number of times patients had to queue and shorten the waiting time for payment, medical institutions successively established hospitalization prepayment and outpatient prepayment.

A relevant person in charge of the National Health Commission said that in recent years, we have continued to improve this system, guiding local governments to gradually reduce the amount of prepayments to further reduce the pressure on patients to seek medical treatment; actively using various mobile payment and settlement channels to improve the convenience of patients to seek medical treatment. During the poverty alleviation period, the "first treatment and then payment" policy was implemented for the poor population with established files. Rural poor patients do not need to pay in advance during hospitalization in the region, and only need to settle the personal payment portion when discharged from the hospital. This policy has been highly recognized by the people.

Cancellation and standardization of prepayment of public hospitals will be implemented from March

To enable the people to share the fruits of reform and development and obtain more convenience and benefits, the National Health Commission has decided that from March 2025, all public medical institutions across the country will cancel outpatient prepayments and reduce inpatient prepayments to the average level of personal payments by medical insurance patients with the same disease, so as to effectively reduce the pressure of prepayment funds on patients and improve people's experience of seeking medical treatment.

(CCTV reporter Long Xiaoqin)