Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 9th. Question: Three Points of Regulating the Price of Dental Implant Medical Services
Xinhua News Agency “Xinhua Viewpoint” reporter Peng Yunjia
“Sky-high fees” for oral implants, low-priced implant advertisements to deceive patients, and “benefits” and “referral fees” to buy off customers… In recent years, the demand for dental implants in my country has shown continuous double-digit rapid growth, but some medical institutions have also appeared. Irregular charges, etc.
In order to standardize the charges for dental medical services and consumables, the National Medical Insurance Bureau announced on the 8th the “Notice on Carrying out the Special Treatment of Oral Implant Medical Service Charges and Consumables Prices”, proposing to adjust the price of the medical service part of a single conventional dental implant in a tertiary public hospital. It is set at 4,500 yuan, and regions or medical institutions that meet certain conditions are allowed to relax appropriately, and the relaxation ratio does not exceed 20%.
Aspect 1: How is the price of dental care services determined?
The cost of oral implants is roughly divided into three parts: implants, crowns and medical services, of which the cost of medical services is relatively high.
Previously, the National Medical Insurance Bureau conducted a survey and registration of dental implant charges and medical service prices. Preliminary results showed that the high cost of medical services was one of the important reasons for the high cost of dental implants. Taking a single routine planting in public medical institutions in various provinces as an example, the average cost of medical services exceeds 6,000 yuan, and the cost in some places exceeds 9,000 yuan.
Weng Linjia, director of the Medical Price Division of the National Medical Insurance Bureau’s Medical Price Recruitment and Procurement Department, introduced that the high cost of medical services is due to unreasonable project settings and excessive decomposition, as well as excessive pricing and indiscriminate charges.
The National Medical Insurance Bureau solicited opinions in the early stage, and most of them believed that the whole process should be guided to return to a reasonable range when standardizing the charges, and some of them believed that the value of technical labor services, technical level, risk level, and resource scarcity should be considered.
After considering the opinions of patients, medical institutions and other parties, the price adjustment target of medical services for a single routine implant in a tertiary public hospital is set at 4,500 yuan, including outpatient examination, biochemical examination and imaging examination, implant placement, crown placement, etc. Fees, excluding implants and crowns.
The main purpose of the special treatment of dental implant prices is to “control” the abnormally high prices of some hospitals in some areas. The current price of medical services is still within the control target. The current price is still implemented.
For regions or medical institutions that meet certain conditions, the notice clearly allows appropriate relaxation of regulatory targets. For example, regions with a developed economy and high labor costs are allowed to relax the price control target of medical services according to local actual conditions, and the relaxation ratio shall not exceed 20%.
“The specific charges of public medical institutions are subject to the price policies formulated and announced by the local medical security department. If additional services such as bone grafting, soft tissue transplantation, and periodontal treatment are required, the actual charges may break through.” Weng Linjia said.
Aspect 2: Promoting price reduction of implants and crowns through centralized procurement and bidding on the Internet
In addition to standardizing the cost of dental implant medical services, the National Medical Insurance Bureau will also carry out measures such as centralized procurement of dental implant consumables, and crown bidding and listing to further promote the price management of dental implants.
The notice makes it clear that the alliance led by Sichuan Province and all provinces will be implemented to purchase dental implant consumables in a centralized manner, requiring all public medical institutions that provide oral implant services to participate, and mobilizing private medical institutions to actively participate in order to achieve volume-for-price.
At present, the price range of high-end brand implants purchased by public medical institutions ranges from 4,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan per set, and each set of other implants costs 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan. There is still room for inflated prices in the circulation process, and prices will drop to varying degrees after centralized procurement. .
Due to the high personalized requirements for the processing and production of dental implant crowns, at this stage, the main exploration is to promote price reduction through bidding and hanging on the Internet. Sichuan Province will first try to form a reference system for the price of dental crowns, and the National Medical Insurance Administration will guide other provinces to implement price linkage. Public medical institutions make their own choices based on clinical needs, and sell dental crowns at a “zero-markup rate” on the online price. Among them, the price of dental crowns produced by third-party factories includes the cost of returning to the factory for adjustment during the implantation process, and no additional charges shall be charged to patients.
It is reported that most of the dental crowns purchased by public medical institutions from third-party factories cost more than 1,000 yuan each, and the price of self-made dental crowns is higher.
In addition, it will explore the establishment of an abnormal price warning system for oral implants, report more price complaints, the price is significantly higher than the local average, refuse or passively participate in the centralized procurement of dental implants, fabricate facts to degrade the units participating in the centralized procurement and the selected products, and do not All types of medical institutions at all levels that cooperate with the regulation work to maintain inflated prices are included in the list of price abnormality warnings.
Aspect 3: How to ensure dental implant services that match the quality and price
How to ensure high-quality dental implant medical services after service prices drop?
According to experts, the quality of dental implant services involves many factors, which are not only related to the product quality of implants and crowns and the technical level of doctors, but also to the original oral conditions of patients and their habits of using teeth after implantation.
The special treatment of dental implant prices has taken measures in many aspects, such as the centralized procurement of implant consumables and the price of medical services, to ensure that the masses can obtain high-quality, efficient and affordable tooth restoration services.
In the centralized procurement of implant consumables, the National Medical Insurance Administration will guide Sichuan Province to explore procurement methods that meet the characteristics of implants, respect the right of clinical choice and usage habits, and adopt a number of selected methods to provide patients with different levels of implants. Consumables to promote the stable quality of dental implant services.
At the same time, the price adjustment of dental implant medical services is linked to the quality of medical care, guiding medical institutions to improve the quality of medical care. For example, medical institutions that have a high success rate of oral implants, disclose service quality information, and promise to accept supervision and inspection can relax their regulatory targets.
It is reported that various price control measures such as implants, crowns, and medical services will be implemented in various provinces from December 2022 to March 2023.
(Peng Yunjia)
[Editor in charge: Xu Dan]