Why are dental implants expensive? Where is the room for price reduction? Say goodbye to expensive dental implants, the plan is here!
The National Medical Insurance Bureau has launched a special treatment for the price of dental implants
To repair missing teeth, many people will choose dental implants, that is, dental implants, but the price is not cheap, starting at tens of thousands of yuan.
On the 8th, the National Medical Insurance Bureau officially announced a special treatment notice, targeting the high cost of dental implants.
The notice makes it clear that after the adjustment, the price of medical services for a single dental implant in a tertiary public hospital will not exceed 4,500 yuan.
Dental implants are expensive, where are they expensive?
This time, the price of medical services is adjusted to 4,500 yuan. Where is the room for price reduction, and what water has been squeezed out?
In the first half of this year, the reporter came to a company that produces dental implants in Ningbo, Zhejiang to conduct research.
This is the only company in Ningbo that produces dental implants and was approved for production and sales in 2014.
The person in charge of the company said that the entry threshold for dental implant production is high and requires a lot of up-front investment, including time and money.
Xu Yibo, deputy general manager of a medical device co., LTD. in Ningbo:
The material itself does not account for a high proportion of the entire cost, and it mainly accounts for the pre-R&D investment and time investment.
For example, if we want to develop dental implants and obtain a license for official sales, it may take about 5 years and tens of millions of investment before we can get a license.
This is just the entry threshold. After I get this certificate, I have to promote it, and I have to be recognized by the market, accepted by doctors, and accepted by the common people. It may take an unknown number of years.
In addition to the cost of dental implants, the cost of planting a tooth is more the service cost of medical institutions.
The person in charge of a dental hospital in Ningbo explained that the process of dental implantation is complicated and requires very high skills and experience of doctors.
Zeng Yanjia, President of Ningbo Yinzhou Stomatological Hospital:
There are many reasons for the expensiveness. For example, one is an implant, which is a good implant. The materials it uses are also different, and the technical support it provides is also different. One is some supporting equipment for clinical operations, and the other is the training of doctors, which takes time and expense.
It is not easy to train an excellent dental implant doctor. It is the scarcity of such experienced and highly skilled dentists that makes the price of dental implants soar.
Ji Dong, a doctor at a dental hospital in Ningbo:
Don't underestimate a dental implant root, it needs a lot of assistance and our personal experience to complete it. It needs a long period of training by oral surgeons. to reach such a level.
The scarcity of high-quality doctors and the drive for huge profits have also led to the occurrence of chaos in the industry.
Zhang Yujiao, head of a well-known dental hospital in Zhejiang:
I have encountered many unqualified doctors for dental implants. The year before last, I was an ordinary assistant with us. When I came back to apply for a job after two years, I became an implant doctor.
Where is the price reduction for dental implant medical services?
It can be seen that the cost structure of dental implants is complex, the shortage of dentists is large, the localization of consumables is low, and disorderly competition leads to chaos in the industry.
This "Notice" first clarified the target of regulation and control of the price of medical services, 4,500 yuan.
Where is the price reduction of medical services for dental implants?
What moisture is squeezed out?
Jiang Changsong, director of the Price Recruitment and Procurement Office, Assistant Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University:
Some of the price items themselves are too high, and market pricing further exacerbates the formation of high prices.
Medical services in the field of dental implants were previously classified as consumer medical care, which did not belong to the category of basic medical care. In fact, most of the prices were adjusted by the market.
Whether it is a public hospital or a private hospital, it can set its own price.
For example, in some places, the implantation operation alone can cost more than 4,000 yuan, plus medical services such as crown installation.
Even excluding implants and other consumables, the total price is 9,000 yuan, or even more than 10,000 yuan. Compared with more complicated and labor-intensive surgeries in other fields, such as artificial joint replacement, the price comparison has exceeded Reasonable range, deviating from the public welfare of public medical institutions.
Jiang Changsong, Director of the Price Recruitment Office, Assistant Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University:
Some of them are related to the setting of too many price items.
He will break it down into filming fee, blood examination fee, anesthesia fee, first-stage implantation fee, second-stage implantation fee, impression making fee, implant guide fee, design fee, maxillary sinus lifting fee, maxillary sinus lifting fee , denture repair fees, abutment installation fees, etc., all superimposed together, and the total cost level will go up.
Jiang Changsong, Director of the Price Recruitment and Procurement Office, Assistant Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University:
There are also unreasonable ingredients in some prices. For example, some medical institutions, especially some private medical institutions, in addition to normal advertisements, also By giving favors, intermediary fees, and referral fees to grab customers, the high ones exceed 1,000 yuan per case in the market. These unreasonable costs will eventually be passed on to patients through unreasonable charges.
Jiang Changsong, Director of the Price Recruitment Office, Assistant Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University:
These are the considerations for controlling the high price of medical services.
In addition, implants and other consumables still have the problem of inflated prices caused by gold sales, which need to be managed through additional targeted measures such as purchasing with quantity and price limit hanging on the net. Although private medical institutions have fewer problems with gold sales of implants, but with the Focusing on the concentration of quantity, we carry out the exchange of price for quantity, and there will be room for price reduction.
Separation of technical consumption: "service items + special consumables" are priced separately
"Separation of technology and consumption" is also the work that this notice will focus on.
What is "Technology Separation"?
In layman's terms, the implant placement fee is priced separately from the price of implant consumables; the crown placement fee is priced separately from the price of the crown product; the bone graft surgery fee is priced separately from the price of bone meal, etc.
What's the benefit of this approach?
Especially in terms of the openness and transparency of prices, how to let patients clearly consume?
Jiang Changsong, assistant to the dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University and director of the Price Recruitment Office:
First, it is beneficial to take control measures according to the respective characteristics of services and consumables.
The main stakeholders of medical services are hospitals and doctors, and the main stakeholders of consumables are production enterprises and distribution enterprises.
And if they are not separated, two things such as medical technical services and implants, crowns and other material consumption will be tied to each other, which will cause constraints and increase the difficulty of governance needlessly.
Jiang Changsong, Assistant to the Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University and Director of the Price Recruitment and Procurement Office:
Second, it is conducive to timely transmission to the results of the follow-up dental implant volume procurement and crown bidding.
If technical services and dental consumables are mixed together to set a package price, all the lower centralized procurement and bidding will become the profit of the hospital, and the common people will not enjoy the dividend of the reduced price of dental consumables centralized procurement.
Jiang Changsong, Assistant Dean of the National Medical Security Research Institute of Capital Medical University and Director of the Price Recruitment Office:
Third, it is conducive to the transparency of the price structure, so that ordinary people can clearly consume, and it is also beneficial for medical institutions to clearly charge fees, and it is also beneficial to the price supervision department. Monitoring and evaluation, assessment and supervision.