Crackdown on medical institutions in insurance scams

BEIJING: Medical institutions will be scrutinised this year for fraudulent practices involving the medical insurance fund, as campaigns will be launched across China.

Insurance scams will be the focus of a year-long campaign against illegal medical practices that was launched in March by eight central government departments, including the National Health Commission, National Medical Products Administration and State Administration for Market Regulation.

Enforcement officers will look into hospital practices such as deceiving or luring patients to spend money on unnecessary treatments, using social security cards without the knowledge of their holders and charging for non-existent services to get money from the medical insurance fund, according to a statement from the National Health Commission.

Other illegal practices and irregularities, including medical institutions and physicians trading or renting permits or certificates to practice medicine, practicing medicine without a licence, publicising false medical advertisements on social media and providing unnecessary diagnoses or treatment for profit, will also be punished if discovered, it said.

Following a special campaign launched by the National Healthcare Security Administration last year targeting insurance scams, the administration has ordered its local branches to intensify efforts to fight irregularities this year in medical institutions, including major public hospitals, grassroots clinics, private hospitals and drugstores, the administration said. — China Daily/ Asia News Network