Recently, the National Medical Insurance Administration has attracted attention through the verification of drug traceability codes. What is a drug traceability code? What does it mean if a drug traceability code is scanned repeatedly? What role does the drug traceability code play in ensuring the security of medical insurance funds? How to use drug traceability codes?

What is a drug traceability code? Answer: The drug traceability code is the "electronic ID card" of the drug. It is usually composed of a series of numbers, letters and (or) symbols. It is marked in a prominent position on the drug packaging box. It is the unique identity label given to each box of drugs from the time of production. If the drug traceability code appears repeatedly during the circulation process, the drug may be a "returned drug", a counterfeit drug, or sold in a scrambled manner. The drug traceability code has three main characteristics: First, it is unique. Each box of medicine has a unique traceability code, and the traceability codes of different boxes of medicine are different; just as everyone has a unique ID number, the ID numbers of different people are different. Second, it is applied to the "minimum packaging unit". Each "minimum packaging unit" of a drug has its own unique traceability code, ensuring that the production and sales path of each "minimum packaging unit" of the drug can be queried and traced. Third, it has a big data effect. At present, the medical insurance department is vigorously promoting the collection and application of drug traceability codes. The more comprehensive, richer and more complete the traceability code data collected by the medical insurance department, the greater the effectiveness of the traceability code.

How to find clues such as "reflow drugs" and "swapped" sales through traceability codes Answer: According to relevant drug and medical insurance management regulations, after a box of drugs is sold to a patient, it cannot be sold to other patients and can only be sold once. Therefore, the traceability code of a box of drugs should only have a record of being scanned by the final sales once. If there are multiple terminal settlement scan records, the drug may be a "reflow drug" or sold in a swapped manner. Some lawless elements use medical insurance funds to purchase drugs, but instead of using them themselves, they resell them, reselling them or even selling them multiple times to defraud medical insurance funds. Such resold drugs are called "reflow drugs." There are also some retail pharmacies that sell daily necessities such as laundry detergent and cosmetics or non-medical insurance payment drugs to insured persons, and use them as medical insurance drugs for settlement, in order to achieve the purpose of illegally swiping medical insurance funds. This behavior is called cross-selling. These illegal behaviors will lead to repeated scanning of drug traceability codes. With the help of big data, the medical insurance department can accurately discover and strike against illegal behaviors such as "returning drugs" and "cross-selling" of drugs based on the clues provided by the drug traceability code, and protect the "medical money" and "life-saving money" of the people.

How to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and support the healthy development of the pharmaceutical industry through traceability codes? Answer: Black industries such as "returning drugs" not only seriously endanger the security of medical insurance funds and the health of the people, but also have serious negative impacts on drug manufacturers and distributors. First, it impacts the market order of regular drug manufacturers. "Returning drugs" enter the market through illegal channels, which will encroach on and squeeze the market space of regular drugs. Second, it damages the brand reputation of regular drug manufacturers. "Returned drugs" have serious safety hazards. Some of them are insufficient in effective ingredients, and some are expired or deteriorated drugs, which seriously damage the health of patients, thereby damaging the brand image of regular pharmaceutical companies that are "returned" or counterfeited. Third, it affects the research and development and innovation of pharmaceutical companies. "Returned drugs" have compressed the profit space of regular pharmaceutical companies and weakened the motivation of companies to carry out new drug research and development and innovation. In the long run, it will affect the healthy and sustainable development of the entire pharmaceutical industry. Drug traceability codes are an effective tool for discovering clues of illegal acts such as "returned drugs". The medical insurance department promotes the collection and application of traceability codes in order to accurately and efficiently combat illegal and criminal acts such as "returned drugs" and drug substitution sales, safeguard the health of the people, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, and safeguard the safety of medical insurance funds.

Does the duplication of drug traceability codes necessarily mean that there are illegal problems such as "returned drugs" or counterfeit drugs? Answer: Not necessarily. The data collected by the drug traceability code is repeated. Excluding technical problems or code scanning problems, there are usually three possibilities: first, the drugs with normal traceability codes are repeatedly "swapped" and "reflowed"; second, the drugs are counterfeited by criminals and the same traceability code is affixed; third, the manufacturer assigns the wrong code, and the same traceability code is printed on different packages.

How can ordinary consumers use traceability codes to protect their legitimate rights and interests? Answer: When buying medicines, the majority of medical insurance participants should keep in mind the five-step method. By using the drug traceability code well, they can promptly discover illegal acts such as "reflowing drugs" and protect their rights and interests: Step 1, keep the hospital's settlement statement or the drug purchase invoice from the pharmacy. Since most drug purchase invoices are thermal paper, the handwriting is easy to disappear. It is recommended that you mark the drug's traceability code with a black ink gel pen after the drug name on the invoice, and then take a photo with your mobile phone to keep it. Step 2, after taking the medicine, cut off the part of the medicine box with the traceability code together with the front of the medicine box to avoid saving the entire medicine box. The third step is that if you cannot finish the medicine or it is expired, you must not throw away the whole box. Not only should you cut the corners of the medicine box, but you should also cut the medicine inside the board to prevent it from being picked up and resold by criminals. If you have time, you can also peel out each pill and throw it into the designated hazardous waste collection area. The fourth step is to continue to pay attention to the National Medical Insurance Administration WeChat public account or the local medical insurance APP. The National Medical Insurance Administration has comprehensively promoted the collection and application of medical insurance drug traceability code information, and will release relevant information about the duplicate traceability code of medical insurance drugs in the future. The fifth step is that once you find that the traceability code of the medical insurance drug you purchased is the same as the duplicate traceability code information released by the National Medical Insurance Administration, or the medical insurance APP prompts you that there is a question about the drug traceability code, it means that the drug may be a "reflux drug" or a fake drug. It is recommended that you take the cut part of the medicine box containing the traceability code, together with the retained invoice or invoice photo, to the hospital or pharmacy where you purchased the medicine to communicate and obtain an explanation, and you can claim punitive damages for confirmed violations in accordance with the law.

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