CCTV News: On January 20, the National Health Commission held a press conference on the practical matters of serving the people in the health system. Liu Kui, Director of the Finance Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that in order to allow the people to share the fruits of reform and development and get more convenient benefits, the National Health Commission has studied and decided from March 2025 that public medical institutions across the country will cancel outpatient prepayment funds and reduce hospital prepayment funds to the average level of personal self-payment for patients with the same disease type, so as to effectively reduce the pressure on patients' advance payment funds and enhance the people's feelings about medical treatment.
Liu Kui said that in recent years, we have continued to improve this system and guided local governments to gradually reduce the amount of prepayment fees to further reduce the pressure on patients to seek medical treatment; actively use various mobile payment and settlement channels to improve the convenience of patients to seek medical treatment. During the poverty alleviation campaign, a policy of "diagnosis and treatment first and then payment" was implemented for the poor people who have been registered. Rural poor patients do not need to pay in advance during hospitalization in their areas. When they are discharged from the hospital, they only need to settle the personal self-paid part. This policy has been highly recognized by the people.
