Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a work plan to organize and carry out special actions on advertising supervision in the field of people's livelihood across the country from April to November 2024. Among them, the first thing to bear the brunt is to maintain a high-pressure and severe crackdown on illegal medical beauty advertising. The document emphasizes that the release of medical beauty advertisements should be strictly regulated, and illegal behaviors such as publishing medical beauty advertisements without advertising review, creating anxiety about appearance, and exaggerating the effects of medical beauty will be severely cracked down on. Seriously investigate and deal with the behavior of platforms, live broadcast rooms, beauty anchors, and celebrities publishing illegal medical beauty advertisements in live broadcast marketing.
　　No.9 Observation will continue to observe the medical beauty industry and the general health industry.
Under the strong supervision of the medical beauty industry by relevant national departments, medical beauty companies should put legal compliance in a more prominent position, and as listed companies in the industry, they should take the lead and set an example.
However, the author inquired on the Enterprise Alert Channel and found that as a leader in the industry and a listed company, Aier Ophthalmology ( 12.400 , 0.10 , 0.81% ) (300015.SZ), only from January to early April this year, its outpatient hospitals in many places suffered from... More than 30 fines have been issued by local regulatory authorities for various violations of laws and regulations (incomplete statistics).
In the whole year of 2023, only incomplete statistics from the Enterprise Warning Channel show that outpatient hospitals wholly owned or jointly owned by Aier Eye Hospital were punished by local regulatory authorities more than 100 times due to violations of laws and regulations.
According to public information, as of June 30, 2023 (the latest public data), Aier Eye Hospital has 229 domestic hospitals and 168 outpatient departments. Compared with the number of hospitals and outpatient clinics it owns, receiving so many fines in a short period of time shows that Aier Eye Hospital has major shortcomings in internal compliance and risk control of its hospitals and outpatient departments. As a listed company, Aier Ophthalmology should pay attention to the problems exposed.
　　1
　　Advertising violations are the first to be violated and are repeatedly banned
The author found from statistics that illegal advertising cases in outpatient hospitals affiliated to Aier Eye Hospital are relatively high.
For example, Hong'an Aier Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. was punished on April 1 this year because the medical advertisements it released contained "medical technology, diagnosis and treatment methods, disease names, and thorough treatment", which violated Article 7 of the "Measures for the Administration of Medical Advertisements" Item (1), in addition, the hospital also published medical advertisements without review, violating Article 3 of the "Measures for the Administration of Medical Advertisements" and Article 46 of the "Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China", etc. wait;
In February this year, Maanshan Aier Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. was fined for publishing medical advertisements without review (Ma Shi Jian Penalty [2024] No. 95);
In January this year, Shenzhen Guiyuan Aier Eye Clinic was fined and punished by the Shenzhen Luohu Market Supervision Bureau (Shenzhen Municipal Supervision Bureau [2024] Guiyuan No. 7) for "illegal publication of advertisements or false and misleading publicity";
, Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital also used the images of patients and health technicians for medical certificates to advertise through WeChat public accounts, live broadcast platforms and other media channels. It was deemed an advertising violation and was subject to market supervision by Wuchang District. The department imposed a fine of 15,000 yuan.
For another example, last year Jinan Aier Eye Hospital was punished for illegal advertising activities such as repeatedly publishing patient medical cases on its WeChat official account (Jili City Supervision and Broadcasting Department [2023] No. 20).
The author did some statistics and found that last year alone, Aier Eye Hospital was punished by local market regulatory authorities for illegal advertising, including Tianjin Aier Eye Hospital, Shenzhen Aier Xiyou Eye Clinic, Lanzhou Aier Eye Hospital, and Panzhihua Aier Eye Hospital. Eye Hospital, Taizhou Aier New Hope ( 8.900 , -0.09 , -1.00% ) Hospital, Yangjiang Aier Eye Hospital, Lishui Aier Eye Hospital, Lijiang Aier Eye Hospital and Linxia, Tianshui, Pingxiang, Anshun, Zhumadian, Panjin Nearly 20 Aier Eye Clinics are located in eye hospitals or outpatient departments across the country, including Guiping, Qianxinan, and Guiping (statistical information comes from corporate early warning data).
　　It can be seen that Aier Eye Hospital’s training and mandatory requirements for its hospitals in medical advertising compliance are still very weak. Unless the cost of illegal advertising is too low and the benefits are too high, why would such illegal advertising occur in Are they blooming all over the country and are banned again and again?
　　2
　　Illegal use of medical insurance funds occurs frequently.
　　Even after being punished many times, he still refuses to change his ways
Compared with the harm of illegal advertising, the harm caused by the illegal situation of Aier Eye Hospital or outpatient department on the other hand may be more serious.
　　On April 9 this year, the Huanggang Municipal Government’s official website published the results of the Huangzhou District Medical Security Bureau’s 2024 medical security administrative enforcement and administrative penalties. It showed that Huanggang Aier Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. had excessive treatment, excessive charging, repeated charging, Unreasonable charging, use of medicine beyond the limits of medical insurance, and many other illegal behaviors violated the provisions of Article 38, Paragraph 1, Items 2, 3, 6 and 7 of the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of the Use of Medical Security Funds", and was banned by Huangzhou District Medical Security The Bureau shall impose penalties.
Such violations of the "Regulations on Supervision and Management of the Use of Medical Security Funds" such as excessive treatment and excessive charging also occur frequently in outpatient hospitals under Aier Eye Hospital.
For example , Lanzhou Aier Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. was found by the Lanzhou Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau in March this year to have engaged in illegal activities such as excessive diagnosis and treatment and repeated charges from 2021 to the end of 2022, and was fined 10,300 yuan; and in October last year , it has been found that in 2021, the unit has repeated charges, exceeded standard charges, exchanged charges for diagnosis and treatment items, and included medical expenses that are not within the scope of payment of the medical security fund into the settlement of the medical insurance fund, and was fined 50,700 yuan by the Lanzhou Medical Insurance Bureau .
Let me explain here, illegal behaviors such as exchanging charges for diagnosis and treatment items and including medical expenses that are not covered by the medical insurance fund into the settlement of the medical insurance fund are very objectionable "fraudulent insurance behaviors" and will cause the loss of medical insurance funds, thus It harms the vital interests of the common people ( 31.440 , 1.02 , 3.35% ) ; and illegal activities such as repeated charging and excessive charging directly harm the vital interests of patients. It is really like "everyone calls for beatings".
In February this year, Jiangmen Heshan Aier New Hope Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. was also found to have engaged in excessive inspections and other behaviors by the local medical insurance department, resulting in a loss of 17,500 yuan in medical insurance funds. As a result, he was fined and ordered to make corrections by the medical insurance department (He Medical Insurance Department [2024] No. 16).
In January this year, Taishan City Aierxin Hope Eye Hospital committed illegal activities such as exchanging diagnosis and treatment items and settlement beyond the scope of the medical insurance payment policy , resulting in a loss of 133,800 yuan in medical insurance funds. It was ordered to make corrections and fined (Taiwan Medical Insurance Office [2024] ] No. 12); In fact, the hospital was punished once in 2022 for causing losses in medical insurance funds through repeated inspections and other illegal activities (Taiwan Medical Insurance Office [2022] No. 18). Unexpectedly, it was committed again this year. Is it true? Is the cost of breaking the law too low?
According to incomplete statistics, Gansu Aier Eye Optometry Hospital, Hengyang Zhengyang Aier Eye Hospital, Hainan Aier Eye Hospital, and Hainan Aier Eye Hospital have been punished for such illegal charging behaviors such as repeated charges, interchange of diagnosis and treatment items, and excessive charges since last year. Erxin Hope Eye Hospital, Shanghai Aier Eye Hospital, Dongguan Aier Eye Hospital, Wuhan Aier Eye Hongshan Hospital, Yingtan Aier Eye Hospital, etc. (statistical information comes from corporate early warning data).
　　Of course, in addition to the above-mentioned illegal behaviors such as illegal advertising, repeated charging, and excessive treatment, some illegal behaviors may make consumers even more angry and worried.
For example, at the beginning of last year, Jinan Aier Eye Hospital was fined 50,000 yuan by the Jinan Shizhong District Health and Health Bureau for conducting medical practice without obtaining a medical institution practice license (Jin Qilin Analyst) certificate (Jinan Zhongwei) Public Punishment [2023] No. 1);
Another example is that in November last year, Chongqing Yunyang Aier Eye Hospital concealed the "syphilis" infectious disease epidemic and was given a warning and punishment by Yunyang County (Yunwei Chuanxing [2023] No. 44);
Another example is the discovery last year that Yichun Aier Eye Hospital and Yantai Aier Eye Hospital used non-health technical personnel to engage in health technical work and conduct inspections. Yantai Aier Eye Hospital even changed surgical methods without preoperative discussion. I think It’s scary to even think about it.
Through the statistical compilation of public information, the author found that the hospitals or outpatient departments affiliated to Aier Eye Hospital have violated laws and regulations in a wide area and with a high frequency, which is really shocking! As a listed company, Aier Ophthalmology is engaged in the medical and health industry. Not to mention internal risk control and compliance control, where is the minimum reverence for being responsible to consumers?