Treatment before payment slated for Chinese public hospitals

Public hospitals in China are to adopt a "Treatment before Payment" scheme this year. That's according to the Ministry of Health. The move eliminates advance deposits for inpatient treatment. It aims to streamline billing procedures, while providing immediate and effective care to people in need.

Chinese seeking hospital admission, used to pay a lump sum of several thousand yuan up front. Many were forced to borrow.

They will not need to do so in the near future.

The Ministry of Health says this year, at public hospitals, patients will only pay their share after medical insurance.

It's huge relief for this family.

The Daughter of Zhou Xiuying said, "My mom is 78 years old and has cholecystitis. Since we are covered by the new rural cooperative healthcare scheme, about 80 percent of the cost is insured. I only pay the rest. It's a lot better than before. "

The pilot scheme has been tested in county-level hospitals in Shandong province since 2010, and expanded throughout the province. Today, more than 2500 public hospitals don't require advance cash payments.

The pilot scheme has yet to be implemented in most public hospitals in Beijing. But people on the street say they welcome the measure, which aims to provide faster and more efficient treatment, while also helping to cut down on medical accidents.

1. For a cash-strapped family, this is great news. It also helps them avoid missing the best treatment period.

2. It's certainly time-saving and convenient for patients.

The new scheme covers three types of patients:

Insured patients, or those covered by the new rural cooperative healthcare scheme;

Patients with no names, no guardian, and no address;

And emergency patients.

But those who require hospitalization due to traffic accidents, or fighting are not eligible.

Under the new scheme, the hospitals should not urge inpatients to pay, nor stop medication for patients who cannot pay their full share. This leaves hospitals worried about being left deep in the red.

Jiao Yahui, Director of Medical Admin. Dept., Ministry Of Health, said, "The immediate settlement with medical insurance is indeed an issue. Some hospitals are being sapped by uncompensated care. There some bad debts or low collection of patients' accounts. We have found six cases in Qinghai, some in arrears for over ten thousand yuan."

Experts suggest including medical expense into the personal credit management system to prevent running up bad debts.

A pre-paid system should also be initiated to allocate a certain percentage of medical insurance to medical institutions in advance to ease pressure.