The price items of medical services, which are commonly known as "examination fees", "nursing fees", "surgical fees", "examination and testing fees", are closely related to people's medical treatment. In order to standardize the management of medical service pricing projects, make pricing projects better priced, executed, and evaluated, the National Healthcare Security Administration has issued 17 batches of project initiation guidelines, involving a total of 271 main projects, 250 additional items, and 88 expansion items. Industry insiders say that the introduction of the Medical Service Price Guidelines aims to promote a relatively balanced level of medical service prices in various regions, ensure more standardized and transparent diagnosis and treatment fees, make medical services more in line with the actual needs of patients, alleviate the problem of medical resource shortage, and promote the construction of harmonious doctor-patient relationships. For a long time, the establishment of project guidelines has implemented provincial and local management of medical service prices, with local pharmaceutical price authorities setting price items and determining price levels. The quantity, content, and granularity of price items vary greatly between regions. Some places also break down price items according to operational procedures, increasing the billing burden on medical institutions, but the public cannot understand it, and it is not compatible with new technologies. We will work together with all parties to ensure the 'price control' of medical treatment for the public Jiang Bingzhen, the head of the Pharmaceutical Price Department of the National Medical Insurance Administration's Pharmaceutical Price and Tendering Procurement Department, introduced that making hospital fees clearer and patients paying more clearly is the starting point and foothold of compiling project guidelines. The project proposal guide systematically reshapes existing price projects, making project names, service outputs, price compositions, as well as additional and expanded items more accurate and project boundaries clearer. After the implementation of project guidelines in various regions, medical institutions can charge legally and compliantly based on the local medical service price items and price levels, which is conducive to reducing the administrative burden of billing for medical personnel. The overall idea of integrating price projects in the project proposal guide can be summarized as' merging similar items' for price projects related to the same service output Jiang Bingzhen said that some of them are mergers of different steps, some are mergers of different techniques, and some are standardization of different schools, resulting in a significant increase in the granularity of price items. At the same time as the project merger, the price will also be adjusted accordingly. For example, when projects such as special grade nursing and first grade nursing are implemented, prices will be moderately increased to better reflect the value of technical labor. For CT and other radiological examination services, the National Healthcare Security Administration will guide provinces to pay attention to the downward trend of the actual purchase price of large examination equipment when formulating provincial benchmark prices, and reasonably lower the price level of radiological examination services. Tang Fei, the head of the Price Management Technical Team at the Medical Price and Tendering Procurement Guidance Center of the National Medical Insurance Administration, introduced that as of now, the National Medical Insurance Administration has compiled and released 17 project guidelines for organ transplantation, oral implantation, obstetrics, nursing, and other fields. In addition, the consultation process for gynecological, anesthesia, and comprehensive treatment project guidelines has been completed, while the consultation process for ophthalmology, respiratory system, and oral (comprehensive, periodontal, orthodontic, restorative, dental pulp, and surgical) project guidelines is currently underway. It is reported that the National Healthcare Security Administration will continue to accelerate the preparation of project approval guidelines, striving to compile project approval guidelines covering most subject areas by the end of 2024, and guiding provinces to do a good job in docking and implementation before the third quarter of 2025. In the process of formulating project guidelines to meet diverse needs, the National Healthcare Security Administration focuses on meeting the diverse medical needs of the public, promoting the filling of medical service gaps, and driving the development of related industries. It has launched a number of new pricing projects to support the clinical application of technologies and projects that meet the new needs of the public. For example, in order to care for "one elderly and one young", new price items such as "door-to-door service", "bedside ultrasound", "unaccompanied care service", "palliative care", as well as price items such as "premature infant care" and "newborn care" have been established. At the same time, a new "aviation medical transfer" pricing project will be established to support medical institutions in providing cross regional emergency medical services for critically ill patients, and to establish an "air green channel" for life; New price items such as proton radiotherapy, heavy ion radiotherapy, and boron neutron capture therapy have been established. After these high-end medical equipment enter clinical practice, they can be charged according to the new price items, which is conducive to accelerating the clinical translation of cutting-edge technologies and bringing more new treatment options for cancer patients. The project proposal guide for medical service pricing provides patients with more diverse choices. Remote fetal heart monitoring and other services supported by new technologies have already been launched, but they have not been included in the existing pricing system. The problem of incomplete pricing items has led to a lack of unified charging standards in clinical practice, which is prone to cost disputes and limits the development of new projects. "Wei Yuan, a doctor in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Peking University Third Hospital, said that the new guidelines include new technologies in the projects, which not only meet the personalized needs of pregnant and postpartum women, but also promote the standardization of medical services. The establishment of a new price for 'unaccompanied care services' is a timely and responsive measure, as well as an important measure to actively adapt to the development of an aging society. It is expected to achieve multiple benefits in the future and promote the high-quality development of the healthcare industry Lin Fengfei, the director of the Second General Hospital of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, introduced that since June 2023, Fuzhou Second General Hospital has gradually launched a pilot project of "no accompaniment" wards in 13 orthopedic wards. Patients can voluntarily choose "no accompaniment" or "non accompaniment" wards. As of October 31, 2024, the hospital has served 15300 patients in the "carefree" ward. The incidence rate of hospital infection has decreased from 0.78% to 0.37%, and the incidence of adverse events has decreased from 0.18% to 0.06%. From the pilot experience, the establishment of relevant projects can help patients accelerate recovery, reduce risks caused by improper nursing, and improve nursing quality and safety. In recent years, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud storage have gradually been applied in the medical field to accommodate incremental technologies. Whether artificial intelligence assisted diagnosis and treatment can be charged extra and how to charge has also become a topic of great concern. Jiang Bingzhen introduced that in the preparation of the project proposal guidelines, the National Healthcare Security Administration not only considers the integration of existing projects, but also pays special attention to the compatibility of incremental technologies. Taking the clinical practice of artificial intelligence as an example, after research by the National Healthcare Security Administration, it is generally believed that artificial intelligence technology can only help doctors improve diagnostic efficiency to a certain extent at the current stage. It is unfair to charge patients for additional artificial intelligence assisted technology after the relevant diagnosis and treatment fees have already been collected Jiang Bingzhen said that therefore, medical institutions should not charge patients extra fees for artificial intelligence technology after they have already collected relevant diagnosis and treatment fees. How to make relatively mature artificial intelligence technology enter clinical applications and become a "bonus point" for medical services rather than a "bonus point"? In order to support the clinical application of relatively mature artificial intelligence assisted technology and prevent additional burden on patients, the National Healthcare Security Administration analyzed the potential application scenarios of artificial intelligence and set up an 'artificial intelligence assisted' extension item in radiation examination, ultrasound examination, and rehabilitation projects. That is, at the same price level, hospitals can choose to train medical staff for diagnosis and treatment, or choose to use artificial intelligence to participate in diagnosis and treatment behavior, but at this stage, there will be no repeated charges, "said Jiang Bingzhen. Other items listed as extensions along with artificial intelligence assisted technology include heterogeneous organs, different types of cupping, amniocentesis injection, etc. For example, fire jars, magnetic therapy jars... Regardless of which type of jar is used for operation, they ultimately belong to traditional Chinese medicine cupping, so they are classified as extension items. When charging, the types of jars are not distinguished, avoiding a variety of charging items. How will local medical insurance departments handle applications from medical institutions for new or revised projects after aligning with the landing project guidelines? Zhao Li, a second level inspector of Guizhou Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau, stated that the implementation of the project proposal guidelines does not conflict with the addition of medical service pricing items. After aligning with the national project guidelines, provincial medical insurance departments will still accept applications for new projects from medical institutions according to established procedures. According to the principle of service output orientation, firstly, priority will be given to responding quickly to the needs of medical institutions for new projects through compatibility with existing price items; Secondly, major innovative projects aimed at optimizing the diagnosis and treatment plans for major diseases or filling the gaps in diagnosis and treatment will be submitted separately to the National Medical Insurance Administration through a green channel; Thirdly, medical innovation technologies that are not compatible with the project guidelines will be accepted and reviewed according to the relevant regulations on new pricing services, ultimately achieving standardized implementation of new projects in clinical departments. (New Society)