Since the beginning of this year, the medical insurance department has firmly established the development concept centered on the people, adhered to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, grasped the key points, took the initiative, effectively implemented existing policies, strengthened the introduction of incremental policies, effectively grasped the bottom line of people's livelihood, and served and guaranteed the overall macroeconomic development.

Ensure patients can seek medical treatment with peace of mind and continue to promote cost reduction and efficiency improvement in medication consumption

From January to September, medical insurance settled 6.916 billion people, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%, including 4.898 billion outpatient visits, an increase of 25% compared to the same period in 2023, effectively ensuring the demand for outpatient medical treatment. Deepen the reform of employee medical insurance outpatient mutual assistance guarantee, expand the scope of personnel and fund use in personal account mutual assistance, and use 30.5 billion yuan in personal account mutual assistance to promote the activation of existing funds and effectively reduce the burden of medical treatment on insured persons. During the agreement period, 397 negotiated drug medical insurance funds have cumulatively paid 71.9 billion yuan, effectively reducing the economic burden on seriously ill and chronic disease patients. Actively respond to the implementation of national strategic measures for population aging, and support the long-term balanced development of the population. The average processing time for newborn birth insurance registration has been reduced from 28.7 working days to 6.4 working days. Implement direct settlement of medical expenses for childbirth, and reduce the processing time for childbirth allowance disbursement to 10 working days. 28 provinces have included assisted reproductive technology in medical insurance reimbursement. The expenditure on maternity insurance fund benefits was 89.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%.

Ensure the smooth operation of medical institutions and empower people's livelihoods through fund payments

From January to September, the expenditure of the basic medical insurance pooling fund was 1.76 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, which was 5.7 percentage points higher than the GDP growth rate during the same period. In the first half of the year, the settlement of 2.67 trillion yuan of funds with designated medical institutions for the year 2023 was completed, and 4.87 billion yuan of outstanding payments to medical institutions before 2023 were cleared, achieving timely and full payment to designated medical institutions. Implement the fund prepayment system, encourage local medical insurance departments to prepay a portion of the medical insurance fund to medical institutions that meet the prescribed conditions, and appropriately tilt towards institutions that have implemented policies well, alleviate their financial pressure, and use "prepayment funds" as "empowerment funds". Deepen the reform of medical service prices, implement price adjustments in all five pilot cities for medical service price reform, launch pilot projects in three pilot provinces, issue three batches of project guidelines for traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture, obstetrics, and nursing, support the development of weak medical disciplines, and better reflect reasonable compensation for the labor of medical personnel. Add the price item of "unaccompanied care services" to meet the diverse nursing service needs of the public, guide medical institutions to provide specialized and technical nursing services to obtain incremental income, and promote the filling of the gaps in patient care services during hospitalization.

Ensure the stable operation of enterprises and actively contribute to stable economic growth

Support the phased reduction of employee medical insurance unit payment rates in some provinces and cities, reducing the burden on enterprises by nearly 30 billion yuan from January to September. As of the end of September, the number of employees participating in the national medical insurance has reached 376 million, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%, which has enhanced business confidence, raised social expectations, and helped stabilize the economy.

Next, the medical insurance department will continue to increase its efforts, firmly establish bottom line thinking, risk awareness, and people-centered development ideas, highlight key points, focus on difficulties, resolutely complete the annual established tasks, continue to provide impetus for the high-quality development of medical insurance, and contribute to the overall economic and social development.