"We also participated in collective procurement, and the price of dental implants came down..." At a private dental hospital in Beijing, the advertisement was affixed to the glass of the gate. The reporter of Beijing Youth Daily learned that with the recent landing of the charging standards for dental implants and implant medical services in Beijing, dental implants bid farewell to the era of "one tooth worth BMW". With the decline in prices, the demand for dental implants in Beijing has been further released, and private dental hospitals have taken advantage of this momentum to fight a price war.

Centralized mining landing

The number of relevant departments in the third-class hospital is in short supply

According to media reports, on the first day after the price of dental implants landed in Beijing, before the opening time in the morning, the waiting room of the Department of Dental Implantology on the seventh floor of Peking University Stomatological Hospital was full of waiting patients, and there were only a few patients at this time.

This heat continues to this day. The Beiqing News reporter consulted a number of local tertiary hospitals, and the number of departments such as dental implant denture restoration and oral implant was in short supply. There are well-known tertiary hospitals with stomatology that have been "full" for many days. "These outpatient clinics are self-funded projects, and compared with other classified clinics in stomatology, there have always been fewer patients." A staff member at the registration office of a tertiary hospital said.

"I used to have bad teeth, and it has been more than half a year, because I heard that the price of dental implants will be reduced, so I have been waiting." One patient said that the dental implant treatment she chose previously cost 1,2 yuan, but now it only costs more than 7000,<> yuan. Like this patient, there are many people who have been waiting for the price of dental implants to be reduced in order to save money.

Market wind direction

Private institutions have set off a new round of price wars

Compared with public hospitals, a larger number of private dental hospitals in Beijing are unwilling to give up the "dividend" released by this wave of dental implant demand. The Beiqing News reporter learned that as a centralized procurement project, private dental hospitals can also participate in implants and crowns or sign agreements with suppliers according to the centralized procurement price. Some private institutions are worried that consumers do not know, and the flow of customers is "robbed" by public hospitals, and they also paste the words "approved to participate in implant procurement", "the whole hospital dental implant is the collective procurement price" and "have joined the collective procurement of dental implants" on their windows to prove that their materials are also "cheap". This is obviously also very effective, a dental hospital in the Wanshou Road area said that before and after the launch of the collection in Beijing, many customers came to inquire about the price, and the number of patients who came for dental implant treatment in the first week of landing was more than doubled than before.

The release of demand has also triggered a new round of price wars in private dental treatment institutions. The Beiqing News reporter found that although the price of a single dental implant in the store quotation of some private dental hospitals is stable at around 7000,16 yuan, on the third-party platform, the price of dental implants in many private dental hospitals in Beijing has plunged sharply. Among them, the price of whole dental implants in Changying Stomatological Hospital dropped from nearly 7,1 yuan to more than 1,3000 yuan; A private dental hospital located near Sihui has reduced the price of a single dental implant of a certain brand in South Korea from the original 3000,2000 yuan to about <>,<> yuan; some chain private dental hospitals have even sold a common price of more than <>,<> yuan per piece for all campuses; Some institutions advertise that a tooth can be implanted for less than <>,<> yuan.

"With such a large decline in raw materials, if we don't join, we can only face market elimination." A practitioner at a private dental medical institution said.

Core issues

How much cheaper is a dental implant?

So, how much has dental implants dropped in Beijing? The Beiqing News reporter learned that the total cost of dental implants is mainly composed of three parts: implant medical service fees, implant material fees and crown material costs.

The Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau recently issued the Notice on the Implementation of the Results of Centralized Procurement of Oral Implant-related Consumables and Limit Price Listing (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). Beijing will simultaneously implement the "trinity" comprehensive management of oral implant medical service charges, centralized procurement of implants, and crown price limit listing, and the prices of oral implant medical services, implants and crowns will be greatly reduced.

In terms of implants and crowns, as early as January 1 this year, the centralized procurement of the implant system opened in Sichuan is another measure to crack the "expensive dental implant". This time, known as the "most difficult in history", the collective procurement finally landed smoothly, and the average winning price dropped to more than 11 yuan, an average decrease of 900%. In March this year, the bidding network of Tooth Crown was opened in Sichuan, and 55 companies participated in the quotation, of which 3 companies were qualified to be shortlisted, the product shortlisting rate was 110%, the average price of the product was 107 yuan, and the lowest product was only 88 yuan.

In terms of medical service fees, Beijing has integrated and standardized a total of 15 medical services related to oral implants, and the price level has decreased by an average of 72% compared with before the adjustment. Among them, the commonly used "implant crown restoration and placement fee (single)" item, the price of public medical institutions has been reduced from 4500 yuan before the adjustment to a minimum of 1103 yuan; For the technically complex "implant placement fee (full dental arch)" project, the price of public medical institutions has been reduced from 41000,9559 yuan before the adjustment to <>,<> yuan.

In addition to reducing the price of the project, dental implants also include examination, filming, implantation, restoration, modeling, etc., as well as anesthesia and medication during treatment. Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau also regulates the total cost of "single conventional dental implant" medical services including the above links: 4300,4500 yuan for second-level and below public medical institutions in Beijing, 5000,5450 yuan for third-level public medical institutions in non-urban six districts, <>,<> yuan for third-level public medical institutions in urban six districts, and <>,<> yuan for the National Stomatological Center (Peking University Stomatological Hospital).

In addition, according to the requirements of the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, not only medical institutions must sign an informed consent form with patients in advance, inform the institution of the price control target of dental implants, clarify the rights and obligations of both parties, but also record and manage the price of oral implant medical services and require the institution to publicize it.

Industry reminders

Be cautious in the face of excessively low dental implant prices

Although the price of dental implants has been "beaten down", some insiders said that it is still necessary to choose carefully for medical institutions with low quotations.

"According to the average price of centralized procurement, the material cost of a dental implant has exceeded 1200,<> yuan without profit, which is not counting the finished products of examination, filming, anesthesia and other treatment links. And dental implants also have high technical requirements for doctors, doctors 'sell' is craftsmanship, it is impossible to be busy, and medical institutions will not do loss-making transactions. The industry insider said that the too low quotation may just be a bait for patients to treat here, and some of the necessary treatment that should have been made into follow-up charges by institutions or institutions have other hidden consumption. It may also be that the doctor in charge of the treatment is not skilled enough.

The industry insider suggested that patients should not blindly believe in advertisements and low offers on some third-party platforms, or visit and compare more, especially when they go to the store to see whether they have announced the relevant charges for dental implants. For the quotation of the institution, the consumer should confirm in advance which items are included in the quotation, which items may be done will be charged extra, and what the specific cost will be. For the doctor in charge of treatment, he should also understand his qualifications, years of practice and reputation to make sure that he has a clear idea.

The Beiqing News reporter learned that according to the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, at present, there are more than 1300,150 medical institutions at all levels and types in Beijing that can provide oral implant services, including more than 1140 public medical institutions and more than <>,<> private medical institutions. The Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau has published on its official website basic information such as the name and address of each dental medical institution, as well as information related to planting costs, such as the price control target of medical services and the markup rate of implant consumables.

Text/Reporter Zhang Xin (Source: Beijing Youth Daily)