Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 31 (Reporter Peng Yunjia) On July 31, the National Medical Insurance Bureau reported that in the second quarter of 2023, there were 28.5413 million direct settlements for medical treatment across provinces and regions, reducing personal advances by 39.41 billion yuan, an increase of 46.02% and 32.63% compared to the first quarter, respectively. The work of direct settlements for medical treatment across provinces and regions has steadily progressed. At present, all the planning areas have opened the cross provincial direct settlement service for Outpatient department fees and the cross provincial direct settlement service for the treatment fees related to chronic and special diseases in five outpatient clinics, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy for hypertension, diabetes, malignant tumor, Uremia dialysis, and anti rejection treatment after organ transplantation. By the end of the second quarter of 2023, there were 151100 cross provincial designated medical institutions for Outpatient department services, 38700 cross provincial designated medical institutions for treatment of chronic and special diseases, and 279000 cross provincial designated retail pharmacies, up 28.92%, 75.91%, and 12.77% respectively from the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter of 2023, 25.7156 million outpatient expenses were directly settled across provinces nationwide. Among them, 18.8674 million people directly settled the national Outpatient department fees across provinces, 596.6 million people directly settled the outpatient chronic and special disease related treatment fees across provinces, and 6.2516 million people directly settled the cross provincial online designated retail pharmacies. In addition, the scale of cross provincial direct settlement of hospitalization expenses has further increased. As of the end of the second quarter of 2023, there were 74400 designated medical institutions nationwide with inter provincial networking for hospitalization expenses, an increase of 6900 compared to the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter of 2023, hospitalization expenses were directly settled across provinces for 2.8257 million people.