The price difference of the same drug is too large, patients do not understand the price of drugs, and often spend money in vain due to information asymmetry, which has always been a pain point for residents to buy drugs and drugs in their daily lives. In recent years, with the development of the online drug market, the price difference between different channels has further widened. The variety of pricing makes it confusing to know how much the drug should be. Some patients are worried that the medicine is expensive, and some patients are worried about whether the cheap medicine is reliable.
No, the solution is coming.
"Drug Price Pass", "Pharmacy Price Comparison Pass", "Medical Insurance Price Pass" ...... Recently, many medical insurance bureaus have intensively launched the medical insurance "drug price comparison" platform named after these names, with the help of information technology to explore and improve the price management of drugs in designated retail pharmacies.
Residents buy medicines at pharmacies (CFP data map)
So, what is the specific effect of these official medical insurance "price comparison artifacts"? How can the phenomenon of different prices of the same drug be fundamentally cured?
Many places have launched the "drug price comparison" platform for medical insurance
Whether the medical insurance "drug price comparison" platform is good or not, let's listen to the personal experience of Yan Jun, a resident of Xi'an.
"In the past, when I bought medicine, I saw a pharmacy on the way, and I didn't bother to run to compare it when I met the store. Now the medical insurance APP has launched a drug price comparison system, and every time you buy a drug, you have to 'compare the price with three'. Yan Jun, who lives in Fengcheng 3rd Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, underwent heart stent surgery in March this year, and after being discharged from the hospital, he had to take ticagrelor tablets and other drugs for a long time.
At the beginning, Yan Jun bought ticagrelor tablets at 98 yuan per box at the pharmacy downstairs of his house. Later, he found a drug price comparison window on the Shaanxi medical insurance APP, entered the name of the drug, and showed that the lowest price of drugs of the same specification in the province was 32.3 yuan, and the price of each pharmacy ranged from 48.5 yuan to 98.7 yuan. After considering the price, distance and rating, Yan Jun chose a pharmacy, and although it was more than 800 meters away, it was only 69 yuan per box, which was nearly 30 yuan cheaper than the one he often bought.
Of course, Xi'an is not the only city that has a medical insurance "price comparison artifact", according to the poster news editor's rough statistics of the official WeChat public account of the National Health Insurance Administration and the relevant reports released by various media, the medical insurance "drug price comparison" platform has been opened:
In December 2023, the Shenzhen Municipal Health Insurance Bureau upgraded and launched the "Medical Insurance Price Pass" system, covering drugs, medical consumables and medical service items of all designated medical institutions in the city, further promoting the openness and transparency of pharmaceutical price information.
Shenzhen's "Medical Insurance Price Pass" system can even quickly inquire about the cost of oral implants, and Ms. Lin, a citizen, has solved her own dental implant problem through it. (Source: WeChat public account of the National Health Insurance Administration)
Shenyang drug price comparison system operates. (Source: CCTV)
In January this year, Shenyang, Liaoning Province began trial operation of the drug price comparison system. Zheng Lin, director of the internal control department of the Shenyang Medical Security Affairs Service Center, said that more than 100,000 people have used the price comparison function this month.
In March, the WeChat official account of Dalian Medical Insurance Bureau in Liaoning Province officially launched the "outpatient co-ordinated drug price" and "e-prescription" query functions, and citizens can easily inquire about personal e-prescriptions, drug reimbursement treatment and the sales price of designated medical institutions in outpatient co-ordination through mobile phones. Up to now, the use of the "price comparison artifact" of Dalian outpatient co-ordinated drugs has reached 5.25 million times.
In May, the Shaanxi Provincial Medical Security Bureau realized the full service of medical insurance drugs. In the Shaanxi Medical Insurance App and WeChat Mini Program, it provides online diagnosis and treatment, drug price comparison in the city, on-demand delivery and other medical treatment and drug purchase functions. As of mid-June, Shaanxi Medical Insurance's drug price comparison system has covered more than 3,000 pharmacies and collected more than 440 pieces of drug data.
On June 13, the "Xuzhou Drug Price Pass" mini program developed by the Xuzhou Medical Insurance Bureau of Jiangsu Province was officially launched. The first batch of 712 city-level medical insurance designated retail pharmacies have disclosed the price information of drugs on sale in real time, and will cover 2,216 medical insurance designated retail pharmacies by the end of this month.
On June 14, the Inner Mongolia Medical Insurance App launched the "Pharmacy Price Comparison Pass" service, and the information of 17,000 pharmacies has been included in the drug price comparison scope of Inner Mongolia Medical Insurance.
Screenshot of Inner Mongolia drug price comparison system (source: CCTV)
It is reported that at the beginning of this year, the National Health Insurance Administration carried out a special management of the prices of "four same drugs" (that is, drugs with the same generic name, the same brand, the same dosage form, and the same specification), and promoted the price of drugs with the same generic name, brand, dosage form, and specifications to return to a reasonable range, and a number of pharmaceutical companies took the initiative to reduce the price of the network. At the end of May, the National Health Insurance Administration issued a document to deploy the special action of "online stores, check drug prices, compare data, and grasp governance" to innovate drug price monitoring methods and methods. In the monitoring of drug prices, the prices of the "takeaway price", "hourly delivery", "instant delivery" and "time-limited delivery" of drugs on the online drug sales platform are introduced as anchors to compare the prices of drugs in other channels to control unreasonably high prices.
Nowadays, various medical insurance "price comparison artifacts" have been launched in various places, and drug prices and other information are more open and transparent, which is not only conducive to patients to buy drugs, but also drives the drug market to achieve benign and healthy development.
Promote the rationalization of drug pricing through price comparison and price comparison
Relevant experts said that affected by factors such as circulation channels, sales models, and pharmacy positioning, it is inevitable that there will be differences in drug prices, but it is the general trend to break the "data barriers" of the pharmaceutical industry and safeguard the public's right to know and choose to buy drugs for medical treatment. By eliminating this "asymmetric information gap", the entire pharmaceutical price can be more transparent, return to a reasonable range, and the market will be more standardized.
Judging from the practice of local places in the early stage, "drug price comparison" can effectively guide pharmacies to take the initiative to reduce prices. Up to now, Shenzhen has guided 3,747 designated retail pharmacies to take the initiative to reduce the price of 3,319 medical insurance drugs.
According to the data of Shaanxi Province, since the drug price comparison function has been launched, remarkable results have been achieved in improving the transparency of drug prices and reducing the burden on the insured, which is expected to reduce the purchase cost of the insured by 10%~15%, especially for patients with chronic diseases and long-term medication, the amount of savings will be more considerable.
Staff in the pharmacy sorting out medicines (CFP data map)
However, industry insiders also said that after the price comparison system, drug prices will be further squeezed out, but this does not mean that retail pharmacies can only compete through "price reduction". On the one hand, pharmacies can reasonably adjust the sales model according to the policy, gain competitive advantages and improve market competitiveness by further controlling costs; On the other hand, it is necessary to improve service capabilities and levels to provide patients with high-quality, efficient and convenient comprehensive services, so as to win the favor of patients for a long time and have stable customers.
A staff member of a pharmacy in Shenyang said that after the drug price comparison system was launched, the price of drugs was clear at a glance, which increased the competitiveness of their stores. "Since the launch of this system, many patients have been able to check their nearby pharmacies through the price comparison function of this system, and then choose our pharmacy to buy medicines. There are prices for each pharmacy above, and our drug prices are more open and transparent, and it is also one of our competitive advantages to make it easier for patients to choose. ”
In fact, the process of comparing the quality and price of drugs is not only a kind of reversal, but also a kind of propaganda - making high-quality drugs with good quality and low price widely known, can guide pharmaceutical companies to embrace digital marketing with a more positive attitude, and win the market with better products and services.
At the same time, it should be noted that the "drug price comparison" platform is currently limited to medical insurance drugs, while retail pharmacies also sell drugs that are not included in the medical insurance catalog, and those drugs are not only more numerous, but also often more profitable. Therefore, on the basis of establishing and improving the "drug price comparison" platform of medical insurance, it is advisable to further expand the application space and coverage of the "drug price comparison" platform, and promote the rationalization of drug pricing through the establishment of a more complete drug price information platform, so as to maintain the market order of fair competition to the greatest extent.
Source: Poster News