The General Office of the State Council laid out key tasks for deepening medical system reform in 2024 in a circular released on June 6.

To advance the fee reform of medical services, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Zhejiang, and Sichuan will carry out pilot programs for reform, and Tangshan, Suzhou, Xiamen, Ganzhou, and Leshan cities are selected to explore new fee mechanisms in medical services.

Meanwhile, work will be done to improve and expand centralized bulk procurement of drugs and medical consumables with enhanced supervision, and deepen the reform of the wage system in public hospitals.

In terms of further reform of medical insurance premiums, all regions under the unified management of basic medical insurance funds will reform payments based on diagnosis related groups and diagnosis-intervention packets.

As a way to improve the medical service system, staff from tier-II and tier-III hospitals will be organized to support the capacity building of grassroots medical services through dispatch, remote treatments, training, and medical tours, the circular said.

The nation will also coordinate efforts to build national medical centers and regional medical centers, deepen the reform of close medical consortiums, and support medical institutions of State-owned enterprises and military hospitals to participate in the reform.

To promote a multi-level medical guarantee system, efforts will be made to improve basic medical insurance and develop commercial insurance options, the circular said.

As for the drug sector, reform and innovation will help improve the use and management of drugs, review and approval, and supplies.

Inheritance and innovative development of traditional Chinese medicine, and high-quality development of public hospitals were also stressed in the circular.