East China’s Jiangsu province has spared no efforts to ensure that patients from Jiangsu will be entitled to direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses when seeking treatment at outpatient clinics in Shanghai by the end of this year, according to a circular on the direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses released by the provincial health authority recently.
The access to direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses has become a matter of urgency for Jiangsu since the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta got the endorsement from the central government as a national strategy last year.
Patients from Jiangsu are now able to swipe their social security card to have the payment reimbursed directly when seeking medical treatment at 2537 hospitals in the Yangtze River Delta region by the end of July.
Authorities in Jiangsu are making efforts to ensure that patients from Jiangsu will be able to have the medical expenses reimbursed directly when seeking medical treatment in all the designated hospitals in the delta region.
In the 2017 Government Work Report, the State Council proposed that a streamlined medical insurance e-platform would be promoted nationwide in a bid to facilitate settlement for nonlocal healthcare services.
By end of September that year, an integrated national e-platform for medical insurance materialized and came into force.
An expansion of the cohort covered by the policy was planned in the 2018 Government Work Report, calling for the incorporation of grassroots hospitals, migrant workers and nonlocal entrepreneurs.
According to statistics, ever since the advent of national direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people served and settlement amounts, bringing substantial convenience to migrant workers.
Additionally, further efforts will be taken to ensure the timely inclusion of all designated medical institutions into the national unified settlement e-platform, promoting online direct payments.
The national administration of medical insurance should work on overall planning and coordination, to effectively implement direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses.
