Key points for correcting unhealthy practices in the pharmaceutical purchase and sales sector and medical services by 2026

The overall requirement for correcting unhealthy practices in the pharmaceutical purchase and sales sector and medical services in 2026 is: guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and its plenary sessions, establish and practice a correct view of achievements, and in accordance with the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, continuously deepen the concentrated rectification of corruption and unhealthy practices in the pharmaceutical sector, advance the centralized rectification of unhealthy practices and corruption issues around the people, and improve long-term mechanisms with strict discipline, measures, and atmosphere. Plug institutional loopholes, regulate industry order, prevent major risks, effectively safeguard the health rights and interests of the people, and provide guarantees for a good start to health and wellness undertakings during the 15th Five-Year Plan.

1. Adhere to Party building leading work style

Systematically strengthen the Party's leadership over rectification work, fully leverage the leadership role of Party organizations, fully implement the hospital president responsibility system under the Party committee's leadership, improve the system for grassroots Party organizations participating in major decision-making in public hospitals, strengthen the construction of Party organizations in social organizations and branches, and use high-quality Party building to lead the construction of excellent work styles to go deeper and more effectively.

2. Strengthen the construction of medical ethics and conduct

Integrate medical ethics and conduct requirements throughout the careers of medical staff, promote the revision and upgrading of medical planning textbooks, enrich medical humanities, doctor-patient communication, health laws and regulations, and increase the proportion of related content in medical personnel qualification exams and continuing medical education. Improve the incentive mechanism for medical ethics and conduct evaluations, emphasizing the application of education and evaluation results at key career development moments.

3. Strengthen positive publicity and guidance

Increase publicity of advanced models and foster an atmosphere of learning from the virtuous and striving for goodness. Actively guide the construction of positive energy across multiple industry platforms, leveraging policy promotion and serving the public. Strengthen the sense of responsibility, promptly, objectively, and orderly publish the progress, conclusions, and handling results of industry hot incident investigations, and respond sincerely and promptly to social concerns.

4. Prevent and resolve risks and hidden dangers

Strengthen monitoring and early warning of operational risks in industry institutions, implement the work instructions and deployments of industry authorities, and carry out investigations and rectifications accordingly. Learn from and apply the new era "Fengqiao Experience" to promote people's mediation of medical-related conflicts and disputes, ensuring that all parties resolve conflicts and disputes in accordance with laws and regulations. Investigate and handle cases such as "violent harm to doctors" and "online medical disturbances" according to law, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of both doctors and patients and maintaining the normal order of medical services.

5. Strictly safeguard medical data security

Strengthen full-process supervision of medical data, improve data usage review and traceability mechanisms, standardize industry data security management, strictly prohibit leakage, resale, and unauthorized use, resolutely curb data profiteering, and effectively safeguard patient privacy and personal information security. Focus on rectifying illegal activities such as "gold-backed sales" disguised by third parties under the guise of scientific research, ensuring the healthy development of the industry.

6. Rectify immoral and improper behaviors

Strictly implement the code of professional ethics for medical staff, the nine codes of integrity for medical institution staff and their detailed rules, strengthen the integrity of staff in affiliated hospitals of higher education institutions, and other normative requirements. Focus on improving service attitudes, with a focus on rectifying violations of professional ethics, breach of professional ethics, neglect of medical quality and safety, unauthorized multi-point practice or external consultations, and acceptance of illegal benefits under the pretext of participating in academic activities.

7. Regulate the order of industry purchase and sales

Standardized, institutionalized, and normalized efforts will promote centralized volume-based procurement of drugs and consumables, expand product coverage, study and promote direct settlement between medical insurance and pharmaceutical enterprises, simultaneously strengthen price management of drugs and consumables, and squeeze out inflated prices. Investigate and deal with price violations in the pharmaceutical circulation sector, such as non-clear price labeling, price fraud, and collusion to manipulate drug prices. Accelerate the resolution of medical institutions' arrears on drug distribution enterprises. Strictly enforce the Government Procurement Law and other relevant legal regulations, focus on supervising high-value medical consumables and medical equipment, rectify illegal interference by the "key minority" of purchasers, evading public bidding by splitting projects, tailor-made bidding, and "open and hidden bidding," crack down on illegal activities such as leasing licenses, false transactions, and commercial bribery by bidders according to law, and promote the governance of abnormally low prices in government procurement of medical equipment.

8. Rectify tax-related violations

Carry out joint investigations and special rectifications, crack down on tax-related crimes such as "tampering and tackling," false VAT invoices, and tax evasion in the medical device sector, track institutions that accept false invoices, and strictly handle illegal and irregular issues. Strengthen risk prevention and control throughout the invoice chain, and enhance credit evaluation in the medical device purchase and sales sector.

9. Safeguard the security of the medical insurance fund

Continue to carry out special actions to regulate medical practices and promote the rational use of medical insurance funds, optimize medical service supply, regulate diagnosis and treatment and fee practices, and continuously strengthen industry supervision. Deepen the rectification of prominent issues in medical insurance fund management, strictly investigate and crack down on illegal and irregular use of medical insurance funds, deepen big data supervision, build and improve an intelligent supervision system for the entire process before, during, and after the event, advance the shift of regulatory thresholds, and promote investigation-driven governance and deep governance.

10. Rectify illegal and chaotic practices in the industry

Strengthen cross-departmental law enforcement coordination in medical supervision, address industry chaos such as services without relevant qualifications, illegal "light medical aesthetics crash courses," and false commercial marketing; Rectify disorderly practices such as surrogacy, fetal gender identification, and issuing false birth medical certificates; Consolidate and expand the achievements of the special campaign to rectify corruption in the funeral sector within the health system, resolutely preventing problem recurrence; Governance of issues such as social organizations in charge of business lending qualifications, publishing journals and meetings, entrusting business, donation cooperation, and other issues to seek improper benefits; In response to medical staff illegally publishing advertisements, using various platforms to attract traffic improperly, and negative behaviors and chaos in internet health science popularization, further rectification and regulation efforts have been intensified. Crack down severely on illegal medical practice and illegal TCM diagnosis and treatment under the guise of health and wellness.

11. Actively promote systematic governance

Consolidate governance effectiveness in key areas and critical links. Effectively implement the core medical quality and safety system, strengthen full-process laboratory management, continuously carry out special work such as medical ethics and conduct, hospital inspections, and case verifications of abnormal inpatient expenses, effectively sever the chain of interests from corruption and build a workflow for rectifying and combating corruption.

Interpretation of the "Key Points for Correcting Unhealthy Practices in the Pharmaceutical Purchase and Sales Sector and Medical Services by 2026."

Source: National Health Commission official website