Internet diagnosis and treatment prohibits unified prescriptions and supplements!

On October 26, the Medical Administration and Hospital Administration of the National Health Commission issued the "Internet Diagnosis and Treatment Regulations (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments") to solicit public opinions.
The time limit for soliciting opinions is one month
.

The draft opinion clarifies that medical institutions should strictly abide by prescription management regulations such as the "Prescription Management Measures" when carrying out Internet diagnosis and treatment activities, strengthen drug management, and prohibit problems such as unified prescriptions and supplements
.

Internet hospitals enter a new era of strong supervision

Internet diagnosis and treatment is an important part of the medical and health service system.
It is of great significance for improving the efficiency of medical services, promoting the sinking of high-quality medical resources, advancing the construction of a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, and alleviating the problem of "difficult to see a doctor" for the masses
.

Since the birth of the country's first Internet hospital in 2015, under the top-level design of promoting the development of "Internet + medical health", the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment has been in the ascendant
.

Earlier, some industry voices pointed out that some pharmaceutical companies included the online drug sales of cooperative Internet platforms in the performance assessment of medical representatives, and instructed medical representatives to use offline academic visits to promote online prescriptions, including drug rebates; some Internet hospitals also link doctors' service income with drug sales in an attempt to "launder" drug rebates
.

With this time, "Medical institutions should strictly abide by the prescription management regulations such as the "Prescription Management Measures" and strengthen drug management, and prohibit the occurrence of problems such as unified prescriptions and supplements
.

In terms of business supervision, the draft opinion also requires provincial health and health authorities to collect relevant data from medical institutions in accordance with the "minimum availability principle", focusing on the collection of medical institution qualifications, medical staff qualifications, diagnosis and treatment subjects, types of diagnosis and treatment, electronic medical records, and electronic Analyze the overall situation of Internet diagnosis and treatment on prescriptions, medication status, satisfaction evaluation, patient complaints, patient safety adverse events, etc.
, regularly (at least once a month) feedback problems to medical institutions and their registration agencies, and clarify the rectification period and so on
.

The implementation of medical insurance payment accelerates the expansion of the fourth terminal

On the same day, the Ministry of Commerce, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission formally issued the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for E-commerce Development", which clearly stated in the item "Enriching New Supply of Online Life Services" to develop online and offline Integrated medical services support medical institutions to make full use of the Internet to expand service space and content, provide online registration, follow-up visits, telemedicine and follow-up management services, and guide Internet hospitals and offline physical medical institutions to achieve data sharing and business collaboration
.

In the process of vigorous development of the Internet medical industry, medical e-commerce, an emerging business, is gaining momentum and is accelerating the restructuring of the domestic medical market
.
According to the analysis of the Southern Institute of Pharmaceutical Economics of the State Drug Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Southern Institute"), online e-commerce platform pharmaceutical sales have sprung up.
Only Tmall, JD.
com, and more than 200 pharmacies sales data show that this year 1- Online prescription drug sales in May reached 5.
66 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 274.
8%, and online OTC sales were 4.
97 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.
3%
.

In 2020, China’s drug online sales amounted to 159.
3 billion yuan, becoming the fourth largest pharmaceutical sales terminal after hospitals, physical pharmacies, and primary medical institutions.
The Southern Institute predicts that the scale of the fourth terminal will exceed 220 billion yuan in 2021.
A year-on-year increase of more than 40%
.

The outstanding performance of the fourth terminal is inseparable from the strong support of the medical insurance payer, which, as a key role in Internet diagnosis and treatment, is helping to accelerate the formation of the closed loop of Internet diagnosis and treatment
.
The National Medical Insurance Administration has previously disclosed that all provinces and cities across the country have issued "Internet +" medical service prices and medical insurance payment policies.
Some medical institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places have realized that medical insurance patients can consult at home, pay online, and deliver medicines.
Home
.
Currently, the National Medical Insurance Administration is formulating the "Internet +" medical service supplementary agreement template to accelerate the implementation of the "Internet +" medical service medical insurance payment policy
.

The industry generally believes that compliance is a prerequisite for the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment.
With the implementation of future regulatory rules and new medical insurance payment regulations, it is expected to promote the development of Internet diagnosis and treatment and Internet hospitals in depth, and the quality of diagnosis and treatment services will be further guaranteed.
The terminal will also be expanded again due to the Internet diagnosis and treatment ecology that tends to be standardized and high-quality development
.