CCTV News: According to the website of the National Health Commission, recently, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the National Health Insurance Administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the State Administration of Disease Control and Prevention, the Central Military Commission’s Logistics Support Department and other six departments jointly issued the "Notice on Standardizing the Management of Prepayment of Public Medical Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). From March 2025, public medical institutions across the country will cancel outpatient prepayment and standardize the management of inpatient prepayment. The relevant key points are interpreted as follows: 1. Background of formulation

In the 1980s, the country successively established an inpatient prepayment system and an outpatient prepayment system. At present, my country's basic medical insurance system has been gradually improved, the coverage and level of medical insurance for the masses has been greatly improved, information technology has been continuously developed, hospitals' refined management capabilities have been continuously enhanced, and the related role of prepayment has gradually weakened. In order to allow the people to share the fruits of reform and development, get more benefits, and focus on the interests that the people care about the most, direct and realistic, relevant departments have studied and issued the "Notice", requiring public medical institutions to cancel outpatient prepayment funds and standardize the management of inpatient prepayment funds to effectively reduce the pressure on patients' prepayment funds and enhance the people's feelings about medical treatment.

2. Document content

(I) Cancel the outpatient prepayment payment. Starting from March 31, 2025, the collection of outpatient prepayment funds will be completely stopped, and the liquidation of existing funds will be completed before December 31, 2025. If the timely clearance is not possible due to objective reasons, the ledger management must be done. Strengthen the full-process supervision of the clearance of existing funds and do a good job in risk control. In order to avoid the inconvenience caused to the public by "one-size-fits-all" and if there is a need for advance payment of funds for special emergency situations and elderly people, medical institutions can collect outpatient prepayment funds under the premise of voluntary patient, and the collection standards must be filed with the local health (Traditional Medicine, Disease Control) administrative department for filing.

(II) Reduce the amount of hospitalization prepayment. Referring to the average number of hospitalization expenses and personal out-of-pocket expenses in the first three years of the same disease type, the hospitalization prepayment amount will be reasonably determined. The amount of hospitalization prepayment amount for medical insurance patients will be reduced to the average level of individual out-of-pocket payment for the same disease type and the same protection category, and will be implemented from June 30, 2025.

(III) Improve the efficiency of settlement of hospitalization costs. Strengthen the internal information transformation of medical institutions and realize information interoperability between departments. In principle, medical institutions must complete the settlement of hospitalization expenses within 3 working days after the patient is discharged from the hospital, and gradually realize settlement within 24 hours. Explore and implement convenient measures such as "one-stop settlement", "bedside settlement", and "online settlement".

(IV) Implement policies and explore innovation. Strictly implement the existing policies to "diagnose and treat first and then pay" measures for people who have been lifted out of poverty. At the same time, medical institutions are encouraged to rely on the personal credit reporting system to explore credit medical treatment.

(V) Give full play to the role of medical insurance fund protection. It is clearly required that all localities accelerate the implementation of supporting policies such as the reform of medical insurance payment methods, implement the management measures for medical insurance prepayment funds, promote centralized procurement of medical insurance and mobile payment of medical insurance, and improve the efficiency of medical insurance fund settlement.

3. Work requirements

All localities should formulate implementation rules for prepayment management in accordance with the principle of territorialization and in combination with the actual situation of their regions. Medical institutions that are difficult to implement on time in special circumstances should report to the local health and health (Traditional Medicine, Disease Control) administrative department and clarify the implementation time. We must further strengthen daily supervision to ensure that public medical institutions do relevant work reasonably and comply with each other, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of patients.

Non-public medical institutions can refer to the implementation.