Recently, the National Health and Family Planning Commission ("NHFPC") and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine ("SATCM") have jointly released the Guidelines for the Administration of Clinical Pathways for Medical Institutions (the "Guidelines"), with immediate effect from the issue date.
The Guidelines state that the administration of clinical pathways should be advanced under certain principles that require the combination with the medical quality control and the performance assessment, adjustments to medical service charges, the reform in methods of payment, and the information construction of medical institutions. Medical institutions should subject certain diseases selected under three principles, such as "common and prevalent diseases", to the administration of clinical pathways. Meanwhile, the Guidelines expressly state that medical institutions should actively cooperate with the price administrations and the basic medical insurance administrations in effectively estimating and calculating relevant expenses according to clinical pathways and pushing ahead reform in methods of payment, such as the payment based on a single disease and the payment based on diagnosis related groups (DRGs). In addition, the Guidelines set out that medical institutions are encouraged to apply intelligent terminals, internet of things and other technologies to the information-based management of clinical pathways, in a bid to improve their work efficiency.