Guangdong for the new crown home treatment patients to liberalize the Internet first consultation online to see the new crown can prescribe drugs

Read Time:5 Minute, 9 Second

Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau issued a notice to temporarily add “online consultation fee – first consultation” medical service price items and temporarily include the first consultation fee of online consultation for new crown patients into the scope of payment of Guangdong basic medical insurance.

Notice of Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau on the announcement of medical service price items such as “online consultation fee – first visit”

Allowing the first consultation on the Internet for people with new crown treatment at home

The “Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau on the announcement of “online consultation fee – first consultation” and other medical service price items” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”) issued on January 16, proposed a temporary new Internet first consultation medical service price items. The establishment of “online consultation fee – first consultation”, “online consultation fee – first consultation (deputy chief physician)” “online consultation fee – first consultation (chief physician)” medical service prices The price of medical services.

Guangdong Provincial Health Insurance Bureau published the “online consultation fee – first consultation and other medical services price list” part of the content

According to the Notice, medical institutions carrying out “online consultation fee – first consultation” service items should be based on the list of medical institutions providing “Internet+” medical services published by local health departments. The first Internet consultation service opened for patients with symptoms related to new coronavirus infection and in accordance with the “Guidelines for the Home Treatment of New Coronavirus Infected Patients” is required to be used.

The Notice requires that public medical institutions provide Internet first visit services at prices consistent with the principle of online and offline, and implement the current offline price standards for outpatient consultation fees for physicians of the appropriate level.

At the same time, optimize the adjustment of the price items of Internet follow-up medical services. New coronavirus infection-related symptoms follow-up services according to the “online consultation fee – follow-up” project implementation.

The notice also proposed that the temporary addition of “prone ventilation therapy” medical services price items, and set a reference price for local medical institutions for pricing reference, public medical institutions to set specific prices no higher than the reference price.

The implementation and enthusiasm of the hospitals remains to be seen

The Notice also clarifies the relevant medical insurance payment policy: patients who have symptoms related to novel coronavirus infection and are in compliance with the Guidelines for Home Treatment of New Coronavirus Infected Patients, using the “online consultation fee – first consultation”, “online consultation fee – first consultation (deputy chief physician) “The medical expenses incurred by patients insured with novel coronavirus infection using the “prone ventilation treatment” medical treatment are temporarily included in the basic medical insurance of Guangdong Province. The medical expenses incurred by patients with new coronavirus infection using “prone ventilation treatment” will be temporarily included in the scope of payment of Guangdong basic medical insurance and paid according to the regulations.

In early December 2022, a South China Morning Post reporter evaluated more than 30 Internet hospitals in Guangzhou (see here for details), and nearly half of them had opened a new coronary area at that time, but all of them publicly stated that they only provided consultation services, which meant that doctors could only provide health consultation to first-time patients of the new coronary online, and could not directly prescribe or mail drugs.

On January 30, 2023, the South reporter randomly checked the Internet hospital small program of several tertiary hospitals in Guangzhou, most hospitals have not opened a special channel for the first online consultation of the new crown, most still use “repeat prescription” “new crown consultation” Most of the hospitals still use the name of the column such as “consultation for new crown” and “consultation for special diseases”.

In terms of price setting, the current policy does not impose much restriction on the price of online “consultation” services, and some hospitals set a diversified price system for online consultation according to the price of special medical services, while some hospitals set the consultation fee with reference to offline clinics.

According to the new policy “the price of Internet first consultation service is in accordance with the principle of consistency between online and offline”, the price of new crown first consultation service must be set according to the standard of offline outpatient consultation fee, which will be lower than the price of special needs service, and the implementation and enthusiasm of each hospital still remains to be seen.

National policy for online new crown first consultation “open the floodgates” a month after the Guangdong landing to follow up

On December 12, 2022, the National Health Care Commission issued a “Notice on Good Internet Medical Services for New Coronary Pneumonia”, requiring localities to further play an active role in Internet medical services and good Internet medical services for new coronary pneumonia.

The Notice proposes that: medical institutions (including Internet hospitals, medical institutions that carry out Internet medical services) can, through Internet medical platforms, prescribe online for the treatment of symptoms related to New Coronavirus pneumonia for patients with symptoms related to New Coronavirus pneumonia, in accordance with the latest version of the New Coronavirus pneumonia diagnosis and treatment protocol, and encourage the commissioning of eligible third parties to deliver drugs to patients’ homes.

The policy is seen by the industry as an important breakthrough in Internet medical policy. Previously, an important bottom line of the policy related to Internet medical treatment was that only “repeat” consultations were allowed, not “first” consultations, and patients who first consulted online could only have “health consultations”. Doctors can only give health advice, but not prescribe medical treatment.

After the release of the policy, the supporting landing policies and health insurance protection policies of each province are coming out.

A month after the National Health Commission “opened the floodgates” for the first online consultation for patients with new coronary artery disease, the Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau issued a landing policy and synchronized the first online consultation fee for patients with new coronary artery disease into the scope of medical insurance payment, which is a good start for the development and growth of Internet medicine in the new year.