On Oct.17th, our reporter learned from the Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission that nine tertiary hospitals in the urban area of the Yichang City have been providing preferential medical fees for patients over the past two months ever since extra charges for drugs were canceled. As a result, the medical expenses of the patients have been reduced by 33million yuan.

　　From the 12:00 am of July 31th, all the public hospitals in the Yichang City canceled the extra charges for drugs (except for traditional Chinese herbal pieces). Meanwhile, some fee standards of medical services were adjusted. Hence, all the public hospitals (including the ones held by schools, enterprises and military) of our urban and rural areas have begun zero-profit drug sales, and officially eliminated the “compensation system for the medical cost through drug-selling profits”.

　　Everyone has access to the welfare. “My child has poor immunity and is prone to cold and fever. We often go to see the doctor in the Municipal Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Recently, the medical fee for the same medicine is reduced by about twenty yuan,’’ said the citizen Liu Yun. “It’s not a big sum of money. However, it’s always a good thing to help us save money as much as possible.”

　　What have been reduced are not just drug prices, but also the physical examination fee related to the large equipment. “The CT examination fee was 250 yuan last year while it is only 215 yuan now,” said Zhang Jun. He also told the reporter that his friend saved lots of money when doing the Magnetic Resonance Imaging checking up. It was 350 yuan for checking a body part while it is less than 300 yuan now, reducing by 15%.

　　However, other fees have risen while some have reduced. Although the registration fees in Yichang have generally risen after the cancellation of drug price addition, it is acceptable to many citizens. "The registration fee of chief physician was 9.5 yuan before, and now it has risen to 21.5 yuan." Wang Wenwen, the patient in the First Hospital of Yichang thinks that although the registration fee has increased, the overall medical fees have been greatly reduced.

　　In order to deepen public hospital reform, Yichang will implement “two invoices system” in medicine procurement starting from January 1, 2018. The first invoice refers to the invoice from the manufacturer to the distributor, and the second invoice refers to the invoice from the distributor to medical service providers, in order to reduce intermediate links in drug circulation and drug prices. A leader in the Yichang Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said that the unreasonably low prices of medical services will be adjusted to realize the value of technical work performed by medical personnel, thus fundamentally contain the over-prescription of drugs by doctors and easing the burden of patients. (Reporter: Yang Jing; correspondent: Publicity Department of YMOH)