Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 16th Title: 15.8 billion traceability code information will take you to understand the "past and present" of drug consumables

Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Penghang

As of January 15, a total of 15.8 billion traceability code information for drug consumables has been collected nationwide, covering 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, connecting 880,900 designated medical institutions, accounting for more than 94% of the national designated medical institutions.

This is learned by the reporter from the National Health Insurance Administration held on the 16th that the medical insurance drug consumables traceability information collection and application release activity. As traceability codes are launched, more information on "past and present lives" such as "who produced, where they were sold, and whether they were sold again" will be more open and transparent, making people more at ease to buy medicines, more efficient supervision and management, and healthier development of the pharmaceutical industry.

The entire process is traceable to make it more secure to purchase medicines

The traceability code is the only "electronic ID card" for medicines and consumables. In April 2024, the National Health Insurance Administration officially launched the collection of traceability codes for pharmaceutical consumables.

With the promotion and use of traceability codes, "scan the code" to know that the "past and present" of drugs and consumables are gradually realized, making it more secure for people to buy medicines.

Zhao Xiuzhu, deputy director of the Big Data Center of the National Medical Insurance Administration, introduced that download the National Medical Insurance Service Platform APP and enter the "Medical Insurance Drug Consumables Traceability Information Query" function, and you can scan the traceability code or manually enter the traceability code to query related information.

According to reports, if the interface displays "Inquiry of drug/consumable traceability information once" and provides detailed information to indicate that the source of the drug is legal, you can use it with confidence; if the interface prompts that the drug/consumable traceability information is queried and the sales record is displayed, indicating that the drug is suspected of multiple sales, you can claim compensation from designated medical institutions based on the information.

"Because the traceability code has not yet been fully covered, there may be a situation where the traceability information of the product has not been found." Zhao Xiuzhu called on manufacturers, distribution companies, and pharmaceutical institutions to actively upload traceability code information to achieve "all drugs can be checked" as soon as possible.

Empowering "code" to make supervision more accurate

From January 1, 2025, the National Health Insurance Administration will comprehensively promote strict supervision of "code" and will carry out targeted crackdowns on illegal and irregular use of medical insurance funds and increase the intensity of disposal.

"Through the application of traceability codes, relevant departments can easily and accurately discover false purchases of drugs, exchanges of medicines, and return drugs through information systems," said Fu Chaoqi, director of the Big Data Center of the National Medical Insurance Administration.

For example, in response to the situation where some "drug dealers" recover the drugs prescribed in the hospital at a low price, sell them at a higher price to the pharmacy, and then raise the price for secondary sales, the medical insurance department can use traceability code big data to promptly discover abnormal situations in which the traceability code information of the drug is repeatedly uploaded between the hospital and the pharmacy, and then accurately lock in the illegal clues of "return drugs".

Fu Chaoqi introduced that the National Medical Insurance Administration is building a medical insurance drug consumable traceability information collection application platform, which will realize the deployment of the National Medical Insurance Administration and the provincial medical insurance bureau at the same time to serve industry management departments, production enterprises, distribution enterprises, designated medical institutions and insured people.

Big data helps the healthy development of the pharmaceutical industry

It is reported that the upload of drug consumable traceability code information is based on the principle of voluntary reciprocity. If any information related to the enterprise is uploaded to the National Medical Insurance Information Platform, the National Medical Insurance Information Platform can provide free batches of drug consumable traceability information that the enterprise complies with national regulations and is not used for unified prescriptions, and provide enterprises with more empowerment services.

"The full-chain traceability information has high value to the manufacturer. Through this information, the manufacturer can understand the direction of its products and carry out refined channel management." Fu Chaoqi said.

Cao Wenbo, director of the Coding Standards Department of the Big Data Center of the National Medical Insurance Administration, said that by collecting the entire process of drug traceability codes, enterprises can gradually improve their digital management capabilities, grasp the market conditions in various places more timely and accurately, respond to market demands quickly, and enhance corporate competitiveness. At the same time, it will also help regulate the market behavior of enterprises and promote the sustainable and healthy development of compliant enterprises.