New Medical Outpatient, Inpatient Policy to Launch in Mar。

Source: OT-Team(G)，光明日报

  Starting in March, all public medical institutions across the country will eliminate outpatient prepayment fees.

  On January 20, the National Health Commission held a press conference regarding public health services. Starting from March 2025, all public medical institutions across China will eliminate outpatient prepayment fees. Additionally, the inpatient prepayment amount for insured patients will be reduced to the average personal co-payment level for the same type of illness. This move is aimed at further easing the financial burden on patients.

  In addition to abolishing outpatient prepayment fees, public medical institutions will be required to refund any prepayments previously made by patients. However, to avoid inconvenience for elderly individuals who are unfamiliar with newer payment methods, prepaid amounts can still be retained for them. For complicated cases such as outpatient or emergency surgeries, medical institutions may still collect prepayment fees on a voluntary basis from patients.

• What Is Outpatient Prepayment?

  Outpatient prepayment refers to an amount that patients pay in advance to medical institutions during the course of medical treatment, which is later used to settle the cost of healthcare services.

• Why Inpatient and Outpatient Prepayments Were Previously Required？

  In the 1980s, in order to reduce patient wait times and shorten the time spent on payment processing, medical institutions began to implement inpatient and outpatient prepayment fees.

• What Are the Implications of Cancelling Prepayment?

  The cancellation or reduction of outpatient prepayment fees has the following positive impacts on patients:

1. Reduced Financial Burden: Patients will no longer need to pay large upfront outpatient or hospitalization deposits, easing their financial stress.
2. Improved Medical Service Efficiency: The reduction in prepayments will decrease delays caused by patients needing to gather funds, allowing for quicker access to treatment.
3. Promoted Rational Use of Medical Resources: By lowering prepayment amounts, medical institutions can allocate resources more efficiently, improving service delivery.

• Example of Reduced Inpatient Prepayment Fees

  For example, if a hospital calculates that the average hospitalization cost for a certain illness covered under the urban and rural resident insurance scheme over the past three years is 9,000 yuan, with the individual's co-payment being 3,000 yuan after insurance reimbursement, then the hospital is not allowed to charge more than 3,000 yuan as a prepayment for this category of patients.