China News Service, February 29. According to the WeChat public account of the National Medical Insurance Administration, the National Medical Insurance Administration announced on the 27th that as of December 31, 2023, 26 pharmaceutical companies have been rated as "especially serious" and "serious" breach of trust.
Why are these companies rated as dishonest?
Which breaches of trust will be rated as "particularly serious" or "serious"?
What impact will the breach of trust assessment have on enterprises?
The person in charge of the relevant department of the National Medical Insurance Administration was interviewed by reporters.
Why are these companies rated as dishonest?
According to documents such as the "Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Credit Evaluation System for Pharmaceutical Prices and Recruitment" previously issued by the National Medical Insurance Administration, it is required that corporate drug rebates, monopolistic price increases, disruption of procurement order and other untrustworthy behaviors should be assessed according to the severity of the circumstances. Those who reach a certain level will be suspended from online purchasing qualifications.
According to the person in charge of the relevant department of the National Medical Insurance Administration, the pharmaceutical price and procurement credit evaluation system are like the "traffic rules" in this field. The prices and business behaviors of enterprises in the pharmaceutical market must abide by the fair and legal, honest and trustworthy market, and the quality and price are consistent. According to the rules, if there is any market behavior that violates and disrupts fair transactions such as "running a red light" or "compacting the line", you will be "deducted points" or even "suspended from the road."
Announced this time are 26 pharmaceutical companies that have been assessed as "seriously" dishonest and "particularly serious" since the implementation of the pharmaceutical price and recruitment credit evaluation system.
According to reports, 25 of them were involved in commercial bribery such as rebates. For example, Zunyi Baiyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. provided rebates and other "favorable fees" to a county people's hospital, equivalent to RMB 3.5516 million.
North China Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. did not implement the procurement contract and did not supply the selected products from the centralized procurement as agreed, which resulted in serious impact on local clinical drug use.
Which breaches of trust will be rated as "particularly serious" or "serious"?
The pharmaceutical price and procurement credit evaluation system divides corporate dishonesty into four levels: "general", "moderate", "serious" and "extremely serious".
Taking drug kickbacks as an example, "the cumulative amount of bribes in the same case is more than 500,000 yuan and less than 2 million yuan, or the amount of a single bribe is more than 300,000 yuan and less than 2 million yuan" is a "serious" breach of trust; "the cumulative amount of bribes in the same case is more than 500,000 yuan and less than 2 million yuan," A single bribe of more than 2 million yuan" is considered a "particularly serious" breach of trust.
In judicial judgments of bribery cases, although only the amount of kickbacks for a certain drug from individual people, individual units, and individual regions was exposed, it actually reflected the degree to which the price of the drug was inflated. Pharmaceutical companies rebate and implement commercial practices. In the final analysis, the money for bribes has to be squeezed out of the inflated prices of medicines and consumables. In the end, it is the medical insurance and the people who bear the undue burden.
What impact will the credit evaluation results of these companies have?
"Generally" pharmaceutical companies that break their trust will be given written reminders and warnings, which is equivalent to criticism and education for minor mistakes;
"Medium" dishonest pharmaceutical companies will be substantially affected. For example, the provincial pharmaceutical procurement platform will label relevant drugs with dishonest information, medical institutions will receive risk warnings when placing purchase orders, and companies will participate in government-organized drugs and medical consumables. Activities such as centralized volume-based purchasing and bidding-based purchasing will also be restricted;
Pharmaceutical companies that have "seriously" breached their trust will be subject to more severe substantive restrictions, such as suspending the listing, bidding or distribution qualifications of specific products involved. Although only individual drugs and individual provinces where the breach of trust occurred are affected, it has already affected the company. It has a certain impact;
Pharmaceutical companies with "especially serious" breaches of trust will face restrictive measures such as suspension of all pharmaceutical consumables from being listed on the Internet, bidding or delivering in the province where the case occurred.
The person in charge said that "punishment" is not the purpose. The key is to guide companies to standardize price behavior and protect the legitimate rights and interests of insured persons.
The medical price and procurement credit evaluation system also provides clear paths for correcting mistakes for dishonest companies that have made mistakes. For example, companies can repair their credit through price reductions, refunds and other practical actions.
For example, a company was rated as "seriously" dishonest because of the issue of rebates, as announced on the official website of the National Medical Insurance Administration in the "Results of "Severe" and "Especially Serious" Distrust Assessment of Price Recruitment Credit Evaluation (Issue 1). The price of medicines will be reduced, and the price will be reduced by the amount of rebate given for each box of medicines, thus effectively repairing its own credit rating and achieving the normal supply of related medicines.