26 testing items and prices adjusted
On May 28, the Hunan Provincial Healthcare Security Administration released the Notice on Regulating and Adjusting the Prices of Certain Laboratory-Test Medical Service Items: it regulated and adjusted 26 laboratory-test medical service items and prices related to products selected in the centralized procurement of renal function and cardiac enzyme testing reagents; in accordance with the relevant price governance requirements, all methodology-based surcharges for the procalcitonin test were removed.
This adjustment was publicized from March 18 and officially came into effect on June 15.
The existing medical service pricing items "Routine Cardiac Enzyme Panel (including serum creatine kinase measurement, serum creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme activity measurement, lactate dehydrogenase measurement, and serum myoglobin measurement)" and "Routine Renal Function Tests (including urea measurement, creatinine measurement, and serum uric acid measurement)" — these two combined items — were simultaneously abolished.
Anhui lowers the prices of 54 testing items
The largest cut reaches 91.67%
On April 29, the Anhui Provincial Healthcare Security Administration released the Notice on Adjusting the Prices of Certain Medical Services at Provincial Public Medical Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice").
This round lowered the charges for a total of 54 testing items, with the largest cut reaching 91.67%, and all import-reagent surcharge items involved were removed. The new charges took effect on June 1, 2025.
A comparison with the Notice on Issuing the Catalogue of Medical Service Pricing Items of Anhui Province (2022 Edition) shows that this round of price cuts in Anhui involves 54 testing items across a very wide scope, covering most fields including routine laboratory testing, coagulation, biochemistry, immunology and microbiology.
Looking at the details, even the most basic testing items saw considerable cuts in this round: the white blood cell count in the complete blood count dropped by a striking 70% as a single item, and the routine stool test fell by 37.5%.
Biochemistry items also saw remarkable cuts: urine microalbumin measurement fell by 50%, cerebrospinal fluid total protein measurement by 75%, and serum indirect bilirubin measurement by 91.67%.
Among immunology items, sex hormones, thyroid function, infectious disease and other items saw modest cuts, while several items with relatively high unit prices dropped more, such as specific β-human chorionic gonadotropin, down 38.89%; human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) measurement, down 38.46%; and rickettsial serological test, down 71.25%.
This round also involved two tumor markers: ferritin measurement, down 50%, and alpha-fetoprotein heterogeneity measurement, down 47.06%.
After two rounds of unified price adjustments by the National Healthcare Security Administration
Since October 2024, the National Healthcare Security Administration has successively carried out two batches of price governance campaigns for medical services, targeting laboratory and imaging examination items with large inter-regional price differences, large differences in procurement costs, high proportions of total expenses, and service volumes susceptible to induced demand.
In the first batch, individual items such as thromboelastography test, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) measurement, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) measurement and pro-B-type natriuretic peptide measurement dropped by an average of more than RMB 40 per item.
The second batch carried out dedicated price governance for 10 tumor marker testing items with large volumes, high prices and large regional price differences, such as carbohydrate antigen measurement, carcinoembryonic antigen measurement and alpha-fetoprotein measurement, requiring prices generally no higher than RMB 50 per item, with a fluctuation of no more than 10% up or down according to local circumstances.
At present, the two rounds of laboratory test item price adjustments led by the National Healthcare Security Administration have been completed nationwide.
Yet it is clear that the wave of laboratory test price cuts has not stopped.
As the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection previously noted in a document, medical service pricing items and price levels are subject to territorial administration: the number of items varies greatly across provinces and the degree of standardization is low, with each province having anywhere from about 5,000 to more than 20,000 pricing items, and problems such as "the same name covering different items and the same item priced differently" are quite prominent.
Accordingly, the discipline inspection and supervision group stationed at the National Health Commission has followed up with oversight, urging the National Healthcare Security Administration to issue guidelines for the establishment of pricing items on the principle of "releasing them in batches as each batch matures."
To date, the National Healthcare Security Administration has formulated 26 batches of such guidelines covering comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, nursing, radiological examination, ultrasound, acupuncture techniques of traditional Chinese medicine, and bone-setting techniques of traditional Chinese medicine, spanning the three major categories of comprehensive, examination, and traditional Chinese medicine medical services, and basically covering most medical service prices except for laboratory testing.
Laboratory testing items are numerous and complex, and at this stage local healthcare security administrations across the country are taking over in succession to carry out price adjustments.
On November 15, 2024, the Hebei Provincial Healthcare Security Administration released the Notice on Adjusting the Prices of Certain Medical Service Items, which involved 12 laboratory and imaging examination items in this round, all of them common laboratory testing items except for X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning.
According to the Notice, blood cell analysis is priced per item at RMB 1 per item, a complete blood count with 3-part differential is capped at RMB 6, and a complete blood count with 5-part differential at RMB 11.
In December 2024, the Zhejiang Provincial Healthcare Security Administration compiled the medical service items and prices of provincial public hospitals in Zhejiang into a table and released it to the public. In March this year, eight provincial departments, including the Zhejiang Provincial Healthcare Security Administration, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission, the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Department of Finance, jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Deepening the Pilot Reform of Medical Service Pricing in Zhejiang Province.
Even though Zhejiang, for historical reasons, has long been a national "price lowland" in terms of laboratory testing charges, the Plan still encourages laboratory departments to cut prices and implement the "separation of technical fees from consumable costs." The Plan was officially implemented on April 2.
On March 18, 2025, the Hunan Provincial Healthcare Security Administration released the Public Notice on Adjusting the Prices of Renal Function and Cardiac Enzyme Laboratory Medical Service Items and Related Matters:
It planned, on the basis of the implemented results of centralized procurement of renal function and cardiac enzyme testing reagents, to regulate and adjust 22 laboratory-test medical service items and prices related to the centrally procured reagents, and to simultaneously abolish the two combined package items of "Routine Renal Function Tests" and "Routine Cardiac Enzyme Panel."
The work of the clinical laboratory is by no means simple mechanical operation; it requires the integrated application of highly specialized knowledge and technology.
Before testing samples, laboratory technologists must carry out rigorous quality control and pre-processing of samples to ensure that sample quality meets the requirements; during instrument operation, they need to set up and adjust the instruments according to the characteristics of the samples and the requirements of the test items; when instruments malfunction or results are abnormal, they must also perform troubleshooting and data interpretation to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the results.
Although the three routine tests, including the complete blood count, are basic testing items, their "gold content" is actually not low at all! Which laboratory professional would dare to claim full command of the re-examination, review and reporting of abnormal results without years of hard work? Only clinical laboratory professionals with a considerable level of expertise can handle all kinds of interfering factors, abnormal cells or pathogenic microorganisms with ease.
Moreover, the more basic a testing item is, the greater its potential impact on the direction of clinical diagnosis and treatment. Ignoring the value of the technical labor involved in this part would be highly inappropriate.
Although the National Healthcare Security Administration has repeatedly mentioned leaving pricing room to reward the labor of laboratory staff, and multiple documents issued by the national and local governments in recent years show that medical service price adjustments attach great importance to reflecting the value of the technical work of medical personnel, there has indeed so far been no targeted increase visible in the price adjustments.
The discipline inspection and supervision group stationed at the National Health Commission has also stated that it urges full consultation with medical institutions in the reform of medical service pricing, so as to better reflect the value of the technical work of medical personnel.
The guidelines for the establishment of pricing items formulated by the National Healthcare Security Administration since 2024 have all established mapping relationships with technical specifications, so that the technical items recognized by the National Health Commission correspond one by one to pricing items.
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