From July 1, pharmacies across the country will implement new regulations, involving online drug purchases that can be used in Beijing with medical insurance personal accounts, the ban on the sale of dextromethorphan, the "online medical insurance payment" and "maximum payment limit adjustment" of outpatient co-ordination pharmacies, the supervision of licensed pharmacists, and the payment of the company's registered capital.
01
In Beijing, you can use your personal medical insurance account to purchase drugs online
From July 1, it will cover 300 pharmacies
The Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau announced that from July 1, insured persons in Beijing can use their personal accounts to purchase over-the-counter drugs online at 300 designated retail pharmacies of medical insurance on the two drug purchase platforms of Meituan and JD.com.
When purchasing drugs online, the insured person needs to log in to the two platforms first, select the drug with the blue logo of "medical insurance", and after submitting the order, select "Beijing medical insurance personal account payment".
02
Guangdong: Licensed pharmacist, officially included in the supervision of medical insurance
From July 1, 2024, the Guangdong Provincial Health Insurance Bureau's Measures for the Credit Management of Medical Security in Guangdong Province (Trial) will be officially implemented, which will be valid for 2 years.
According to the requirements of the document, medical insurance designated medical institutions, physicians, pharmacists, and insured persons will be included in the medical insurance credit management, which will be divided into 5 levels of ABCDE according to the points, corresponding to different regulatory inspection systems. Among them, pharmacies are institutional credit subjects, and pharmacists are individual credit subjects. For example, for credit subjects of Class A and B institutions, reduce the frequency of inspections during routine oversight inspections or spot checks, and the proportion of "double random, one open" spot checks is not higher than 50% of the original spot check ratio, and increase the amount of advance payment from the medical security fund.
For credit subjects with a grade of A, in principle, the proportion of provincial and municipal inspections and spot checks is not higher than 30%; For credit subjects with a grade of B, in principle, the proportion of provincial and municipal inspections and random inspections is not higher than 50%. For A-level institutions and individual credit subjects, provide facilitation such as tolerant acceptance and priority handling of government service matters; Provide facilitation such as credit for medical treatment to one of the human credit subjects.
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Shanxi: Outpatient co-ordination pharmacies, liberalization of "online medical insurance"
In June this year, the Shanxi Medical Insurance Bureau, the National Health Commission, and the Food and Drug Administration jointly issued the Notice on Standardizing and Improving the Payment of Medical Insurance for "Internet +" Pharmaceutical Services (Draft for Comments), which was implemented from July 1 and is valid for 3 years.
According to the document, Internet hospitals that rely on the designated medical institutions of medical insurance in the overall planning area, have been registered for practice, and whose information system can be connected with the provincial medical insurance electronic prescription circulation platform (hereinafter referred to as the "prescription platform"), and have the technical conditions for opening medical insurance mobile payment, can apply to carry out "Internet +" medical service medical insurance payment, and provide medical insurance settlement services for employee outpatient co-ordination for employee medical insurance personnel. It should be noted that when the insured person issues a prescription through the Internet hospital, the pharmacy employee is not allowed to state the condition or fill in the relevant content on behalf of the insured person, so as to put an end to the situation of "valet consultation". Pharmacies must not use methods such as "returning consultation fees" to induce patients to conduct online consultations or prescribe medicines.
The medical insurance settlement price of the state-negotiated drugs and competitive drugs during the agreement period shall not be higher than the national unified medical insurance payment standard; The national and provincial governments (including provincial alliances) will purchase the selected drugs and medical insurance settlement prices with reference to the selected prices; For other drugs in the medical insurance catalog, refer to the online price of the provincial drug and equipment procurement platform.
In addition, internet hospitals must not charge pharmacies any fees such as "franchise fees", "system usage fees", "access fees", or bundle other commercial charging software or services, nor may they provide prescription commissions or rebates to pharmacies to attract pharmacies to induce patients to conduct unreasonable diagnosis and treatment.
04
Shanxi: Outpatient co-ordination pharmacies, the maximum payment limit has been increased
In May this year, Shanxi Province issued the "Notice on Improving the Co-ordination Policy of General Outpatient Clinics of Basic Medical Insurance for Employees", which will be implemented from July 1, 2024, in order to improve the co-ordination of outpatient medical treatment of employees' medical insurance and further reduce the burden of outpatient medical expenses on insured employees.
05
Dextromethorphan was strictly controlled, and a large number of pharmacies banned its sale
In May this year, the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Health Commission jointly issued the "Announcement on Adjusting the List of Psychotropic Drugs", and a number of varieties were included in the list of psychotropic drugs, among which dextromethorphan was listed as the second class of psychotropic drugs. The announcement will be implemented from July 1.
This means that a large number of pharmacies across the country that do not have relevant sales qualifications will be prohibited from purchasing and selling dextromethorphan.
According to a number of previous media reports, dextromethorphan is at risk of abuse among young people in China, and some pharmacies sell dextromethorphan in violation of regulations and are heavily fined by regulatory authorities. For example, in December 2023, a pharmacy in Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province, was fined 100,000 yuan for illegally selling prescription drugs. It should be added that in June this year, the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Health Commission jointly issued the "Announcement on Listing 46 Substances such as Bromine Coffee in the Supplementary Catalogue of Non-medical Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Controlled Varieties" to prevent the abuse and spread of new psychoactive substances and crack down on related criminal activities.
06
The registered capital of the company (including pharmacies) shall be paid up within 5 years
From July 1, 2024, the newly revised Company Law of the People's Republic of China will come into force. The new law stipulates that the registered capital of a limited liability company shall be the amount of capital contribution subscribed by all shareholders registered with the company registration authority. The amount of capital contribution subscribed by shareholders shall be paid in full by shareholders within five years from the date of establishment of the company in accordance with the provisions of the articles of association. For existing companies established before July 1, 2024, a three-year transition period (from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027) is set up, allowing companies to adjust the remaining capital contribution period to five years during the transition period.
In terms of "capital reduction and creditor protection", after the company's capital reduction resolution is made, the company must notify the known creditors. The consequence of failure to notify creditors is that both the shareholder and the shareholder who has not reduced the capital may be liable for supplementary compensation within the scope of the capital reduction. In terms of "shareholders' rights and responsibilities", the shareholder loss system is aimed at shareholders who do not contribute capital, and allows the board of directors to remove them from the list by resolution. Shareholders have the right to inspect and copy the articles of association, shareholder register, meeting minutes and other materials, and may entrust intermediaries to do so. Shareholders are jointly and severally liable for the company's debts under certain circumstances. In addition, a company is allowed to have only a board of directors and no board of supervisors, but it is required to set up an audit committee in the board of directors to exercise the functions and powers of the board of supervisors. Small companies may not have a board of directors and a board of supervisors.
07
will be bromophine and other 46 substances
It is included in the non-medicinal hemp essence control varieties
On June 16, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the Measures for the Administration of Non-medical Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health Commission and the State Drug Administration decided to include 46 substances such as bromophine, metoniquin, and medetomidate in the "Supplementary Catalogue of Controlled Varieties of Non-medical Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances". This announcement will come into force on July 1, 2024.
08
Sichuan Medical Health Bureau:
Retail pharmacies applying for medical insurance designation are subject to a number of verifications
In order to further standardize the fixed-point assessment of medical security in medical institutions, recently, the Sichuan Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Detailed Rules for the Fixed-point Assessment of Medical Security in Sichuan Medical Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice").
The "Evaluation Rules" emphasize the evaluation of retail pharmacies applying for designation, including the basic situation verification, service capacity, information system construction verification, and re-verification of inadmissibility, as well as the verification of the authenticity of the purchase, sale and inventory records of retail pharmacies, and whether they have the conditions for transmitting relevant data to the medical insurance department as required.
The results of the assessment shall be determined by the collective research organized by the medical insurance agency, and if the assessment is unqualified, the reasons shall be informed, and the rectification suggestions shall be put forward, and the assessment can be applied again after 3 months, and if the assessment is still unqualified, it shall not be applied again within 1 year. The Notice will come into force on July 1, 2024 and will be valid for 5 years.
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