Changing roles
One of the goals of the reform was to encourage more patients to consider visiting grassroots clinics rather than head for large hospitals, which are perceived as offering a better standard of care.
Whether that actually happens remains to be seen.
Although there has been a drop in people outside the insurance program arriving at Chaoyang Hospital, Chen said it is attracting even more people covered by the capital's health insurance fund, most of whom are simply paying 2 yuan out of their own pocket to get cheaper prescriptions.
Liu Jian, a board director at the Friendship Hospital, said he has noticed a similar trend. He attributes the extra patients to the fact that his hospital's medicines are less expensive than most others in the capital.
Large hospitals usually provide insured patients with better and more expensive medicines, which grassroots hospitals do not have or can only sell at full price, so many chronic patients tend to get regular prescriptions there, added Zhang Qingyu, director of Tongren Hospital's medical insurance office.
However, Liu said he hopes large hospitals and community healthcare centers can take on different roles in the future. "In the long run … people should go to community centers if they have slight, common or chronic health problems. Large hospitals should focus on urgent, complex or critical problems," he said.
Zhang agreed and added: "It's like shooting mosquitoes with a cannon if large hospitals spend too much effort on treating patients who just need prescriptions."
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