ArticleBMC health services research2020
The impacts and unintended consequences of the nationwide pricing reform for drugs and medical services in the urban public hospitals in China.
Article in BMC health services research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- How Did Zero-Markup Medicines Policy Change Prescriptions in the Eyes of Patients?-A Retrospective Quasi-Experimental Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of national comprehensive medical reform on healthcare quality: evidence from China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Characteristics and economic burden of hospitalized tuberculosis patients in Guangdong Province, China, from 2017 to 2023: a population-based study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- A scoping review of Chinese national policies to promote the three-medicals linkage reform since 2014.npj health systems · 2025Article
- Impact of zero-markup consumable policy and national procurement of orthopedic spinal devices in China: a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Stakeholder engagement and pharmaceutical pricing regulation: a qualitative inquiry.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- The Impact of Autonomy Reform on the Efficiency of Public Hospitals in China: A DEA-ITSA Combination Analysis.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2025Article
- Trends in the practice environment of Chinese healthcare professionals from 2008 to 2023: an age period cohort analysis.Human resources for health · 2024Article
- New evidence on supplier-induced demand in China's public tertiary hospitals: is the cost of hospitalization higher in the off-season?The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Article
- Can single disease payment impact hospitalization expenses and quality in district hospital? A case study in Fujian, China.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- The impacts of public hospital comprehensive reform policies on hospital medicine cost, revenues and healthcare expenditures 2014-2019: An analysis of 103 tertiary public hospitals in China.Frontiers in health services · 2023Article
- Medical service pricing and pharmaceutical supply chain coordination contracts under the zero-markup drug policy.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Were economic evaluations well reported for the newly listed oncology drugs in China's national reimbursement drug list.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives in the United States and China: The Need for Professional Public Space.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2022Article
- Intended and unintended impacts of the comprehensive reform of urban public hospitals: A mixed-method study in Hangzhou, China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The impact of zero markup drug policy on patients' healthcare utilization and expense: An interrupted time series study.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- The impact of national comprehensive medical reform on residents' medical expenses: Evidence from China.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Did the universal zero-markup drug policy lower healthcare expenditures? Evidence from Changde, China.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Impact of zero-mark-up medicines policy on hospital revenue structure: a panel data analysis of 136 public tertiary hospitals in China, 2012-2020.BMJ global health · 2021Article
- The Impact of China's Zero Markup Drug Policy on Hospitalization Expenses for Inpatients in Tertiary Public Hospitals: Evidence Based on Quantile Difference-in-Difference Models.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSince 2015, China has been rolling out the pricing reform for drugs and medical services (PRDMS) in the urban public hospitals in order to reduce drug expenditures and to relieve financial burdens of patients. This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the reform and investigating its positive impacts and unintended consequences to provide evidence basis for further policy making.
methodsThe Difference-in-difference (DID) approach was employed to analyze the reform impacts on the 31 provincial administrative areas in China based on data abstracted from China Statistics Yearbooks and China Health Statistics Yearbooks from 2012 to 2018.
resultsThe reform resulted in a decrease of 7.59% in drug cost per outpatient visit, a decrease of 5.73% in drug cost per inpatient admission, a decrease of 3.63% in total cost per outpatient visit and an increase of 9.10% in surgery cost per inpatient admission in the intervention group. However, no significant change in examination cost was found. The reduction in the medical cost per inpatient admission was not yet demonstrated, nor was that in the total outpatient/ inpatient expenses. The nationwide pricing reform for drugs and medical services in urban public hospitals (PRDMS-U) in China is demonstrated to be effective in cutting down the drug expenditures. However, the revealed unintended consequences indicate that there are still significant challenges for the reform to reach its ultimate goal of curbing the medical expenditures.
conclusionWe conclude that the pricing reform alone may not be enough to change the profit-driven behavior of medical service providers as the root cause lies in the unchanged incentive scheme for providers in the service delivery. This holds lessons for policy making of other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with similar health systems set up in the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.