Ms. Wang from Shiyan City, Hubei Province has been suffering from diabetes for many years and has been in need of regular drug purchases. During the new crown pneumonia epidemic, going to the hospital for re-examination and prescribing became a problem. "I want to go to the hospital to prescribe medicines, but I am afraid of cross infection.

On March 31, Ping An Good Doctor announced that its Internet hospital has opened online payment for medical insurance in Hubei Province and launched the "Internet Medical Security Service Platform". After verifying the medical insurance information on the Ping An Good Doctor APP, Ms. Wang completed prescribing medicine online. "The money I spent in the hospital was the same as when I went offline, and it was also convenient for me to take it home." Ms. Wang said .

Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Internet medical service has opened up the "second battlefield against epidemics." With the medical insurance online breaking ice, does this mean that the market is ushering in an inflection point?

Brilliant performance of Internet medical anti-epidemic

Ping An Good Doctor is China's largest Internet medical company. As of December 31, 2019, the Ping An Good Doctor app has 315 million registered users, 67 million monthly active users and 3 million monthly paid users, with 729,000 daily consultations. This time, the Internet hospital under it became the first batch of institutions to open online payment for medical insurance in Hubei Province. It also marked that Ping An Good Doctor became the world's first Internet medical platform to open online medical insurance.

Ping An Good Doctor said that this also marked the entry of "Internet +" medical service fees into medical insurance payments into a new stage. In the future, 60 million Hubei users can use the one-stop service of online diagnosis and treatment, prescription circulation, online payment and home delivery through this platform.

Under the epidemic, the medical performance of the Internet is particularly bright. According to the statistics of Yinchuan Internet + Medical and Health Association, as of March 12, 188,000 doctors on the Internet Hospital of the 27 member units of the Association provided more than 20 million health consultations for patients across the country and more than 16 million free consultations. This move was also described by Chen Qiulin, deputy director of the Health Industry Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as "successfully opening up the second battlefield against epidemics." Chen Qiulin believes that the epidemic has educated Internet medical users. With the online diagnosis and treatment services helping to fight the epidemic, the National Health and Medical Commission also quickly issued policies to promote and improve Internet medical services, and the medical insurance department also issued related payment policies. .

Jianke CEO Xie Fangmin believes that the initial stage of Internet medical treatment is mainly based on light consultation. As the Internet medical system gradually improves, with chronic diseases and re-examination as the main features, it will promote online payment for medical insurance to become just needed. With the integration of Internet medical care and medical insurance, in the long run, data sharing of medical insurance medical services across regions and hospitals can be realized. On the one hand, the use of medical insurance funds is more effectively controlled, and on the other hand, health records are gradually established for insured persons. "2020 is expected to be the turning point for Internet healthcare, but future development depends on whether companies can continue to provide satisfactory and stable medical services to the people."

Analysys predicts that under the catalysis of the epidemic, the market size of the Internet medical industry will reach 196.09 billion yuan in 2020, and the annual growth rate is expected to exceed 59.3% in 2014 and reach 63.7%.

Medical insurance online payment is difficult to break the bottleneck in different places

However, whether the Internet medical service can usher in an inflection point, the industry's view is still quite cautious.

Wang Tao, Chairman and CEO of Ping An Hao, mentioned in an interview earlier that medical insurance payment involves different policies in various places and requires Internet medical platforms to communicate with each other one by one.

Li Tiantian, founder and chairman of Lilac Garden, believes that the promulgation of policies such as online medical insurance is more favorable to the industry as a whole, but not to the benefit of enterprises. The first problem that is difficult to solve is the settlement of medical insurance in other places. "For example, the Lilac Garden Internet Hospital is registered in Yinchuan and Heilongjiang, but if a patient in Shanghai seeks medical treatment at a Lilac Garden Internet Hospital, it turns out that medical insurance cannot be used because it belongs to a different place. From the current policy, Shanghai Patients can only be reimbursed for consultation on the online Internet platform of a hospital in Shanghai. In this case, the advantage of the Internet's "borderless service" is greatly limited, because as an Internet company, it is unlikely to be in every region of the country. Every hospital has an Internet hospital platform. "

The data from Yinchuan Internet + Medical Association also confirmed this. Data show that among the over 20 million online consultations, Ningxia's local consultations were less than 150,000, accounting for less than 1%.

Industry insiders point out that compared to traditional medical services, the current "Internet +" medical services supported by medical insurance are only moving the service online. For in-depth deployment of Internet companies that rely on offline physical medical institutions and help offline It is advantageous for the hospital to establish an "Internet hospital", but as far as the overall Internet medical industry is concerned, it cannot be said lightly. With the outbreak of public hospitals' online medical services under the epidemic situation, there will be a risk of user diversion in the market in the short term.

Li Tiantian believes, "The health insurance policy is favorable. We remain cautious and not overly optimistic. At present, there is still great difficulty in docking the platform with medical insurance in various places, and there are too many departments involved in medical insurance. Policies in each region It ’s all different. It ’s necessary to get through the medical insurance electronic systems in different places, and the communication and coordination are relatively difficult. "

Internet medical is leaning towards the healthy side

At the beginning of the domestic epidemic, all major Internet medical platforms experienced a surge in user numbers. For example, the number of new registered users of the Ping An Good Doctor's platform APP increased by 10 times, and the "Episode Map" of Lilac Garden exceeded 2.5 billion. However, with the domestic epidemic gradually declining, the number of online consultations on major platforms has also declined significantly. How does the Internet medical platform break the bottleneck of "low frequency"? People in the industry believe that in addition to online medical insurance payments, the shift from medical needs to health-end needs has also become a major direction.

Li Tiantian pointed out that the attention brought by incidents such as the epidemic is unlikely to bring about a fundamental and lasting explosive growth. After the epidemic, medical institutions, clinics, and hospitals in various places will reopen, and online services will return to normal levels, and diseases will return to offline service scenarios, but the public will definitely pay more attention to healthy living than before. "Medical care is centered on disease, and health is centered on lifestyle. One low frequency and one high frequency. I don't think medical care can create new demand, but health services are more frequent and it is easier to create some upgrades due to consumption. And new demands. "

Wang Hang, CEO of Good Doctor Online, pointed out that Internet medical care played an important role in the epidemic, and suggested that Internet medical third-party platforms be given greater attention, be incorporated into the national health system and emergency management system, and focus on exploring large-scale online free clinic Public service capabilities will only be able to rely on an additional professional force in emergency situations in the future.

Southern Daily reporter Yan Huifang