Medical institutions in Shanghai that provide online diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak will now be eligible for reimbursement by China’s national health insurance authority. Under a pilot program, services to be covered include online follow-up consultations for common and chronic disease patients.
Also included in the measures announced by the Shanghai Healthcare Security Bureau in late February are a boost in the budget of the medical insurance fund, an increase in volume-based drug procurement, and implementation of the latest local reimbursement drug list. The pilot is designed to test whether such measures can be successful in making pharmaceuticals and treatments in demand by virus patients more accessible.