China News Service, August 24th (Xie Yiguan, reporter from China News and Finance) For a long time, the high fees for dental implants have discouraged many people who are deeply troubled by dental diseases.
Someone once calculated that the cost of planting a tooth would cost more than 300,000 yuan, which could buy a house in the county seat or a BMW.
Recently, the National Medical Insurance Bureau issued the "Notice on Carrying out Special Treatment of Oral Implant Medical Service Fees and Consumables Prices (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as "Draft for Comment"), which is undoubtedly a good idea for those who are going to do dental implants. information.
"I'm going to have teeth extracted and implanted next Wednesday. Do you want to wait?" A patient left a message.
Data map: The patient is treated in the hospital.
Photo by Xu Lanqing (picture and text irrelevant)
Collective collection of dental implant consumables "the arrow is on the line"
"In the field of oral implants, problems such as irregular charges and heavy cost burdens have existed for a long time. With the improvement of living standards and the deepening of population aging, it has become a pain point for people's livelihood. The voices of all parties to rectify the order and reduce prices and burdens are very strong." The Department of Health Insurance pointed out.
Judging from the content of the draft for comments, this time, we also started from various aspects to standardize the charges in the field of oral implants, such as doing a good job in price regulation around the whole process of dental implants, and organizing the implementation of centralized procurement of implants.
Among them, the establishment of an inter-provincial procurement alliance for dental implant consumables has been mentioned many times before.
At the executive meeting of the State Council held on January 10 this year, it was proposed to gradually expand the coverage of centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables, and to carry out centralized procurement at the national and provincial levels for dental implants that are of concern to the public.
Since then, Chen Jinfu, deputy director of the National Medical Insurance Bureau, also said that regarding the centralized procurement of dental implants, in the first half of this year, we will strive to launch a coalition reform of local centralized procurement.
It is now included in the draft for comments, which also means that the centralized procurement of dental implant consumables is "on the line".
After centralized collection, dental implant materials may usher in a big price reduction
After the consultation draft was released, many patients were concerned about whether the inclusion of dental implant consumables in centralized procurement would bring about a major price reduction.
Judging from patient feedback, the high price of dental implant consumables, especially imported dental implant consumables, is a major factor in the overall high charges.
In June of this year, patient Xiaoge underwent a first-stage operation for dental implants in a dental hospital in Beijing.
A total bill (estimated) provided to the reporter of Zhongxin Finance and Economics shows that the cost of dental implant consumables and surgery is about 18,000 yuan, the bone meal is about 6,000 yuan, and the other costs are about 2,000 yuan. The total fee is about 26,000 yuan.
The total bill for dental implants provided by Xiaoge.
Zhongxin Finance reporter browsed the charging information of many stomatological hospitals and clinics in Beijing. According to the different implants, the price is divided into multiple grades.
The cost of imported dental implants from South Korea and the United States is mostly below 10,000 yuan. The price of Swiss ITI dental implants is concentrated at more than 10,000 yuan. The most expensive one is ALL-ON-FOUR American ET implants, with a price of 110,000 yuan.
After the implementation of centralized procurement, can the costs borne by patients be greatly reduced?
Previously, Bengbu City, Anhui Province included dental implants in centralized procurement. After centralized negotiation, the cost of dental implant materials (including a set of dental crowns and implants) decreased by an average of 84.17%, with a maximum decrease of 89.5%.
In addition, with reference to the data released by the National Medical Insurance Administration, the centralized procurement of the first six batches of medicines dropped by an average of 53%.
In addition, in the centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables, the average price of cardiac stents decreased by 93%, and the average price of artificial hip joints and knee joints decreased by 82%.
Whole process control will eliminate price manipulation space
"In addition to the high price of the material itself, the real high value of dental implants is the added value," Shi Lichen, founder of Beijing Dingchen Pharmaceutical Management Consulting Center, once said, that is, the costs that are added to the materials, such as diagnosis costs, treatment costs, and other auxiliary materials fees, doctor fees, etc.
If there is no policy reduction in service charging standards, it is difficult to determine the overall price reduction rate.
The first-phase payment receipt provided by Xiaoge showed that the total amount of the first phase was 7,335 yuan, of which, the missing tooth implant treatment (50% paid during implant surgery) was charged 4,500 yuan.
According to his introduction, the second-stage operation will be carried out in October, and the remaining implant consumables and surgical fees will be paid by then.
The first payment receipt provided by Xiaoge.
In order to reduce the cost of other projects, it is also mentioned in this consultation draft that price regulation should be done around the whole process of dental implants; implant placement fees, crown placement fees, bone graft surgery fees and other oral implant projects are subject to government guidance. In areas with price management, the medical security department re-formulates and announces government-guided prices while standardizing price items; the cost of implant placement, crown placement, and bone graft surgery, which have been strongly criticized by the masses and are heavily burdened by costs, are mainly reduced.
"The complexity of the cost structure of dental implant surgery is a major difficulty in controlling expenses. The cost structure of different medical institutions or services at different prices is quite different." said Liu Hui, an analyst in the pharmaceutical industry of Galaxy Securities.
Liu Hui said that the game between all parties has further led to the confusion of the cost of dental implant services.
This kind of game thinking will make it more difficult for non-professionals to judge the cost composition of dental implants. Only by "one size fits all" control of the total project price can this operating space be eliminated.
From the perspective of regional practice, price control will also bring greater benefits to patients.
This year, Zhejiang Ningbo Medical Insurance Bureau was the first in the country to launch an implant dental insurance price-limited payment policy, "Agreed on brand, agreed on price", limited to 3,000 yuan/pc for domestic brands and 3,500/pc for imported brands.
Data map: In the service robot special exhibition area of the 2020 Service Trade Fair, oral implant surgery robots attract visitors.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita
A large number of private institutions may participate in centralized procurement together
Since the centralized procurement of consumables in the past was mainly concentrated in public medical institutions, will private institutions participate this time?
Will it be included in price regulation together?
The consultation draft clarifies that, in principle, the number of medical institutions (including private individuals) participating in this centralized procurement in each overall planning area should account for more than 40% of the medical institutions that provide dental implant services.
Fully mobilize private medical institutions to participate.
At the same time, strengthen the supervision and guidance of oral implant prices in private medical institutions.
"Considering that private medical institutions for dental implants account for more than 80%, such a high participation ratio will inevitably require a large number of private institutions to directly participate in centralized procurement." Liu Hui said that even private institutions that did not participate in centralized procurement are subject to price supervision and market competition. Pressure will also pull the prices of private institutions that do not participate in centralized procurement to a level similar to that of private institutions that enter centralized procurement.
In Liu Hui's view, if dental implants, a project with a large number of private participants and complex and difficult to calculate costs, can be capped in a total price package, it will not be a problem for other projects to accelerate the implementation of DRG (disease diagnosis-related grouping).
What is more worthy of attention is whether the price-limiting model of dental implants will be replicated in other optional medical consumption fields, especially some items in ophthalmology and medical aesthetics.
(Finish)