On the afternoon of May 20, the National Medical Insurance Administration issued the “Notice of the Office of the National Medical Insurance Administration on Strengthening Regional Collaboration to Improve the Quality and Expansion of Centralized Pharmaceutical Procurement in 2024”, proposing to form a national alliance for centralized procurement and actively promote the expansion of centralized procurement in 2024.
According to the notice, on the basis of the centralized mass procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables organized by the state, regional coordination will be strengthened, provincial alliance procurement with qualified conditions will be upgraded to national alliance procurement, and it is required to do a good job in monitoring and management of the implementation of centralized procurement, treat all types of business entities fairly, and strictly prevent “local protection”.
The relevant person in charge of the National Medical Insurance Administration said that overall coordination should be strengthened in the selection of centralized purchasing varieties to ensure that the state and local governments complement each other. The centralized procurement organized by the state focuses on drugs that have passed the consistency evaluation, as well as on high-value medical consumables with inflated prices and strong public response; the national joint procurement focuses on covering varieties other than the centralized procurement organized by the state, as well as “big varieties” with large purchase amounts and wide coverage of the population, and continues to expand the coverage of centralized procurement.
The notice clearly stated that it will focus on key areas and actively promote the expansion of centralized procurement in 2024. In terms of consumables, the state organized the centralized procurement of new batches of high-value medical consumables and the continued procurement of artificial joints; it focused on guiding provinces such as Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, and Hebei to lead the national joint procurement of medical consumables such as in vitro diagnostic reagents, ultrasonic scalpels, ligation clips, coronary cutting balloons, and vascular intervention.
The specific points are summarized as follows:
01 A new form of centralized procurement is born: “National Joint Procurement” of seven major consumables will be launched, with centralized procurement in one place and follow-up across the country
The “Notice” clarifies that provincial alliance procurement should further strengthen national coordination, and upgrade it to national alliance procurement if conditions are met. The leading province should strengthen communication and coordination with the National Medical Insurance Administration, and invite all provinces to participate to form a national alliance centralized procurement (hereinafter referred to as “national joint procurement”).
The National Medical Insurance Administration stated that this is conducive to realizing centralized procurement in one place and nationwide follow-up, helping to unify the national market, reducing repeated bidding costs for enterprises, and creating a good business environment.
The “Notice” points out that we will focus on key areas and actively promote the expansion of centralized procurement in 2024.
The National Medical Insurance Administration focuses on guiding the following nationwide joint procurement work: Jiangxi takes the lead in the alliance procurement of biochemical in vitro diagnostic reagents; Anhui takes the lead in the alliance procurement of tumor markers and other in vitro diagnostic reagents; Guangdong takes the lead in the alliance procurement of ultrasound blades; Zhejiang takes the lead in the alliance procurement of breast rotational ablation needles; Fujian takes the lead in the alliance procurement of ligation clips for vascular tissue closure; Henan takes the lead in the alliance procurement of coronary artery cutting balloons and other supplies; and Hebei takes the lead in the alliance procurement of vascular intervention and other consumables.
All provinces must seize the opportunity to “fill the gaps” and include hemostatic materials, patches, in vitro diagnostic reagents and other varieties that have been developed by many provinces into the scope of centralized procurement through price linkage and other methods. By the end of 2024, each province will complete at least one batch of centralized procurement of medical consumables.
02 All provinces participate in the national joint procurement to avoid “draining” the policy
The National Medical Insurance Administration will coordinate and guide the nationwide joint procurement, coordinate experts to provide technical support, and improve standardized work capabilities. The leading provinces must fully learn from the experience of national and local organizations in centralized procurement, conduct in-depth investigations and studies, listen to opinions and suggestions from all parties, formulate targeted procurement rules based on product characteristics, and standardize organizational procurement.
In principle, all provinces should participate in the national joint procurement, actively contribute ideas and suggestions, do a good job in monitoring and managing the implementation of centralized procurement, and enhance the effectiveness of centralized procurement; they should establish an overall view of key matters related to the effectiveness of centralized procurement, such as quantity reporting management, implementation of collective procurement agreement volume, price management of non-selected products, and suspension of network suspension. In principle, they should be consistent with the leading provinces and avoid “letting go” or “letting go” in policy implementation.
National joint procurement must treat all types of business entities fairly, and shall not set discriminatory rules based on unreasonable conditions such as corporate ownership, registration place, size, domestic and foreign investment, etc., and strictly guard against “local protection.”
03 Launched national procurement of new batches of consumables, and unified national procurement of artificial joints
The “Notice” clarifies that the state organizes centralized bulk procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables (hereinafter referred to as “state-organized centralized procurement”), and the joint procurement offices for drugs and consumables carry out operations separately, and all provinces should participate and implement them conscientiously.
According to the requirements of the “Notice”, in 2024, we must further promote the centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables. In accordance with the principle of “one product, one policy”, timely carry out new batches of nationally organized centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables; carry out nationwide unified procurement of artificial joints.
04 The anti-corruption situation in medicine is included in the consideration of centralized procurement
The National Medical Insurance Administration will strengthen overall coordination in the selection of centralized purchasing varieties, increase efforts to expand coverage, reduce overlap between national and local centralized purchasing varieties, and achieve mutual complementarity.
Focus on the “large varieties” of commonly used clinical drugs and consumables that have large purchase amounts and cover a wide range of people, as well as drugs and consumables that can be substituted for clinical use or are related to the varieties purchased by the state.
Each province must carry out targeted procurement work in its own province based on the characteristics and structure of pharmaceutical consumables expenditures, fund operations, and the situation and needs of centralized rectification of corruption in the pharmaceutical field.
05 Strengthen the supply guarantee of the selected products and handle the problem of payment collection in a timely manner
The National Medical Insurance Administration will, through the National Medical Insurance Information Platform Recruitment and Procurement Subsystem, open the participating provinces’ procurement data inquiry authority to the leading provinces in the national joint procurement. Each participating province must timely and standardize the transmission of data to the Recruitment and Procurement Subsystem, and the leading province shall conduct an analysis of the overall implementation of the National Joint Procurement, and regularly report within the alliance members.
All provinces are encouraged to actively explore and promote direct settlement between medical insurance funds and pharmaceutical companies for centralized procurement of pharmaceutical consumables. Drug traceability codes will be used as a condition for collective purchase declarations, and the application of traceability codes in distribution, settlement and other links will be gradually promoted.
The National Medical Insurance Administration will establish an online feedback mechanism for centralized procurement implementation issues, collect supply and quality issues of selected products reported by medical institutions, as well as hospital admission and payment collection issues reported by selected enterprises, and guide relevant provinces to handle them in a timely manner.
Each province must also establish a mechanism for medical institutions and selected enterprises to report problems, open communication channels, and carefully verify and deal with them. Specifically, they include:
Enterprises whose supply is not timely and unstable will be dealt with in accordance with the procurement bids and contracts. Relevant quality issues will be reported to the local drug regulatory department in a timely manner and followed up and dealt with.
Medical institutions that do not open hospital admission channels to selected products that have signed agreements and do not return payments on time will be notified and interviewed, and those that do not make rectifications will be further dealt with in accordance with regulations in conjunction with relevant departments.
06 Improve network mining rate
Medical institutions participating in centralized purchasing are urged to purchase centralized purchasing varieties from the provincial centralized pharmaceutical purchasing platform as required, including selected products and non-selected products.
All provinces should focus on centralized purchasing varieties and focus on increasing the online purchasing rate of high-value medical consumables. It is necessary to compare settlement data and online purchasing data through the medical insurance information system, accelerate the online purchasing of high-value medical consumables, and investigate and deal with suspected insurance fraud in accordance with laws and regulations.
07 The implementation of centralized procurement is included in unannounced inspections
The implementation of the selected results of centralized procurement is included in the unannounced inspections of the national and provincial medical insurance departments, focusing on inspections of the selected products that have not been admitted to the hospital, the agreed purchase volume has not been completed, the use of high-priced non-selected products is high, and the use of high-priced substitutes has increased abnormally.
Medical insurance departments at all levels should strengthen communication and coordination within centralized procurement and fund supervision, and focus on conducting supervision and inspection of medical institutions with poor implementation of centralized procurement.
