China plans to complete a national reimbursement network for inpatient services by the end of September, said the country's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The network will allow any patient who is enrolled in China's public medical insurance systems to be reimbursed for inpatient expenses, no matter where they are treated, said the ministry.

As of mid-June, 1,563 medical institutions, including clinics and hospitals, in 30 provincial-level regions had been included in the network.

Before these efforts, inpatients had to return to the locality where they were enrolled in public medical insurance in order to receive the reimbursement, if they were treated at hospitals elsewhere.

According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, between January and June, the network served 2,369 people and provided 26.47 million yuan (about 3.9 million U.S. dollars) in reimbursements.

Currently, 1.34 billion Chinese people are enrolled in various public medical insurance systems, accounting for up to 98.8 percent of the population.

In 2016, the Chinese government spent 1.315 trillion yuan on medical and health care, a 10-percent increase from 2015.