China News Service, Haikou, February 28 (Reporter Zhang Qianyi) "The hospitalization cost was 7,421.85 yuan, and the direct real-time medical insurance settlement and reimbursement in another place was 5,997.13 yuan, which is so convenient." Zhao Fenglan, a health insurance participant in Heilongjiang, recently went to Hainan Wanning People's Hospital for medical treatment and paid the bill. The current medical insurance settled directly, and reimbursement was completed immediately. "It is convenient to seek medical treatment, and we can rest assured to retire here."

  Every winter, a large number of elderly people from China's northern provinces leave their cold hometowns, like migratory birds, to move to the warm south to spend the winter. Hainan, China's only tropical island province, is very popular among them.

When living in Hainan, reimbursement for medical treatment in other places has become a concern for "migratory bird people".

  Thick materials and long queues, this is the impression that 72-year-old "migratory bird" Cui Xiangzhen remembers about medical insurance reimbursement.

"In the past, we had to pay in advance for medical treatment in other places, and then go back with a lot of materials for reimbursement. Sometimes we took the wrong ones and left them out, and we had to run in both directions." Cui Xiangzhen said that every time he was reimbursed, he would have to wait in line for half a day.

Problems such as "advance payment" and "errands" have always been a pain point for cross-provincial medical treatment.

  In order to better serve people from other provinces who come to Hainan for vacation and retirement, Hainan is the first country in the country to launch direct settlement of medical treatment in different places across provinces.

Convenient, worry-free and considerate, as the path to settlement for medical treatment in other places is opened, many insured people feel the warmth of "not having to worry about medical treatment in a foreign land".

  According to reports, medical insurance participants can apply for registration and filing procedures for off-site medical treatment through various online and offline channels such as the window of the insurance agency, the national medical insurance service platform APP, and the national off-site medical registration mini program. Inpatient medical expenses for medical treatment in designated medical institutions in different places can be directly settled across provinces and in different places.

  Cui Xiangzhen told reporters that from February 2023 to January 2024, he went to Wanning People's Hospital 18 times for various diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, edema-type diseases, lumbar, cervical and shoulder joint pain. The hospital learned that medical insurance in other places can directly settle and reimburse. With the help of the staff, he directly registered through the mobile app and reimbursed in real time at the window settlement.

"I don't need to pay for medical expenses in advance. Seeking medical treatment in other places is as convenient as seeking medical treatment in the insured place." Cui Xiangzhen said.

  In 2021, Hainan and other provinces will launch a pilot program for cross-provincial direct settlement of outpatient chronic disease costs for five special outpatient chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, malignant tumor outpatient radiotherapy and chemotherapy, uremic dialysis, and anti-rejection treatment after organ transplantation.

  Lu Yuxiang, an 82-year-old "migratory bird" who spends the winter in Hainan, is a beneficiary of the outpatient chronic disease reimbursement policy.

He suffers from type 2 diabetes and came to live in Qionghai 4 years ago.

"Since Qionghai had not yet opened inter-provincial direct settlement of outpatient chronic disease-related treatment costs at that time, we always prepared a lot of medicine to bring with us when we came to Hainan, or bought the medicine in Heilongjiang and then mailed it over, which was very troublesome." Lu Yuxiang's daughter Lu Shuangyan said that after learning that Qionghai People's Hospital was one of the first designated medical institutions in Hainan Province to launch a pilot program for inter-provincial direct settlement of outpatient chronic disease expenses in December 2021, he used the national medical insurance service platform APP to seek medical treatment in other places for his father. After filing, every time you go to the outpatient clinic of Qionghai People's Hospital to pick up medicine, you can be reimbursed in real time, and you no longer need to "bring medicine" from your hometown.

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