Chinanews.com, Beijing, November 11 (Shao Meng) On November 23, the National Health Insurance Administration's Pharmaceutical Price and Bidding and Procurement Guidance Center announced the latest evaluation results of "particularly serious" and "serious" untrustworthiness in the credit evaluation of price procurement, summarizing the 11 pharmaceutical companies rated as "particularly serious" and "serious" in various provinces on September 20, 2023. Among them, 9 pharmaceutical companies were rated as "serious" and 30 pharmaceutical companies were rated as "particularly serious".
List of 26 untrustworthy enterprises. Source: Official website of the National Health Insurance Administration
"Particularly serious" untrustworthy enterprises may face withdrawal from the network
The above results show that the three pharmaceutical companies assessed as "particularly serious" are Sichuan Beijukang Medical Device Co., Ltd., Sichuan Runzeyuan Medical Device Co., Ltd., and Zunyi Baiyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Chinanews.com checked the "particularly serious" and "serious" dishonesty assessment results of the price procurement credit evaluation previously announced by the National Health Insurance Bureau, and found that it was not the first time that the above three companies were "named". For example, in the "serious" and "particularly serious" untrustworthy assessment results (Phase 3) of the price procurement credit evaluation released on the official website of the National Health Insurance Administration in January this year, there are specific reasons why Sichuan Runzeyuan Medical Device Co., Ltd. and its listing as a "particularly serious" untrustworthy enterprise.
According to the public information, according to the judgment of the Liangshan Intermediate People's Court, Xia Xuelian, a salesperson of the company, gave kickbacks or improper benefits to Zhang Tinghai, director of the orthopedic department of the former Ningnan County People's Hospital, and Liao Xianming, vice president, so that the palm-lateral metal bone plates operated by him could obtain additional trading opportunities, competitive advantages and sales quantities, which were equivalent to 290.7 million yuan in total. The starting date for the statute of limitations for untrustworthy conduct is August 2022, 8.
According to the "Operational Specifications for Credit Evaluation of Pharmaceutical Prices and Procurement (2020 Edition)" issued by the National Health Insurance Administration, the untrustworthiness of pharmaceutical enterprises in the local bidding and procurement market is assessed as "general", "moderate", "serious" and "particularly serious" according to factors such as the nature, circumstances, and scope of influence of the untrustworthy acts. Among them, for pharmaceutical enterprises with a level of untrustworthiness assessed as "particularly serious", all of the enterprise's qualifications for listing, bidding, or distribution of drugs and medical consumables should be restricted or suspended, and the period of restriction or suspension should be promptly adjusted based on the pharmaceutical enterprise's credit restoration conduct and results.
It mostly involves sales with gold
Most of the 26 untrustworthy pharmaceutical companies exposed this time were involved in giving kickbacks or improper benefits to relevant personnel in hospitals in order to obtain additional trading opportunities, competitive advantages and sales volume for their products, and the amount involved ranged from 40,300 to <> million.
In one case, the amount involved exceeded $350.6 million. Zunyi Baiyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a "particularly serious" untrustworthy enterprise announced this time, was rated as "particularly serious" in the "particularly serious" and "serious" untrustworthy assessment results (Phase 355) of the price procurement credit evaluation previously released by the National Health Insurance Administration. The above assessment results show that according to the judgment of the Tongzi County People's Court, Zunyi Baiyi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. gave kickbacks or other improper benefits to the Tongzi County People's Hospital in order to obtain additional trading opportunities, competitive advantages and sales volume of the drugs it operated, which was equivalent to a total of RMB 16.2022 million. The starting time of the statute of limitations for untrustworthy behavior is October 10, 31, and the Guizhou Provincial Pharmaceutical Centralized Procurement Agency assesses the "particularly serious" untrustworthiness of enterprises in accordance with the provisions of the price procurement credit evaluation system. According to the announcement of the Guizhou Provincial Pharmaceutical Centralized Procurement Platform, the company's drugs and medical consumables are restricted from being listed, bidding and distributed, and the restriction period is until July 2025, 7.
In addition to pharmaceuticals, some companies' pharmaceutical commercial bribery also involves medical devices. Among the 26 untrustworthy enterprises notified this time, many of them are medical device companies, such as Sichuan Beijukang Medical Device Co., Ltd., Taizhou Daai Medical Device Co., Ltd., etc., all of which are involved in commercial bribery cases of medical consumables.
Businesses can take steps to proactively repair their credit
Since August 2020, 8, when the National Health Insurance Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Establishment of a Credit Evaluation System for Pharmaceutical Prices and Procurement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), the National Health Insurance Administration has published 28 issues of the "Evaluation Results of "Particularly Serious" and "Serious" Untrustworthiness in Price Procurement Credit Evaluation, and a number of pharmaceutical companies have been included in the "blacklist" of procurement credit evaluation due to sales with gold and centralized procurement violations. According to the "Operational Specifications for Credit Evaluation of Pharmaceutical Prices and Procurement (7 Edition)", pharmaceutical enterprises with a "serious" untrustworthiness rating will be restricted or suspended from the qualifications of the enterprise to be involved in the network, bidding or distribution of drugs or medical consumables. Pharmaceutical enterprises assessed as "particularly serious" shall be restricted or suspended from all the qualifications of the enterprise for online listing, bidding or distribution of all drugs and medical consumables.
However, the "Opinions" mentions that enterprises are encouraged to take practical measures to actively restore credit, including terminating relevant untrustworthy acts, disposing of dishonest persons, submitting compliance rectification reports and accepting compliance inspections, publicly issuing apology statements to eliminate adverse impacts, eliminating inflated space in the prices of drugs or medical consumables involved in the case, returning or donating unreasonable benefits for public welfare, and effectively indicating the actual control entity of the untrustworthy conduct.
According to the official website of the National Health Insurance Administration, the person in charge of the Pharmaceutical Price and Bidding and Procurement Guidance Center of the National Health Insurance Administration reminded enterprises to make good use of the credit repair rules when interpreting the issues related to the credit evaluation of price procurement. For example, for "kickbacks", the remedial measures available to enterprises are not only to return improper gains, but also to reduce prices to eliminate the room for inflated prices. Some companies believe that they can replace price reductions with refunds, but in fact, the refund measures are to give back the improper gains in the early stage, and there is no repair for the high price behavior in the later stage; And the price reduction is to correct the inflated price and avoid causing new harm. So when it comes to credit repair, refunds are not a substitute for price reductions. (ENDS)