National Health Commission: As of the end of last year, 115,000 children with blood diseases and malignant tumors had been

People's Daily Online, Beijing, June 10 (Reporter Cui Yuanyuan) On the 10th, the National Health Commission held a press conference on the management of voluntary blood donation and treatment of children with blood diseases and malignant tumors in my country. Guo Yanhong, the inspector of the Medical Administration and Management Bureau of the National Health Commission, introduced at the meeting that by the end of 2020, 115,000 children with blood diseases and malignant tumors had been included in the monitoring and management system, and the treatment and guarantee work had achieved remarkable results.

"Children's blood diseases and malignant tumors are difficult to treat, with long cycles, high costs and heavy burdens, and they have attracted widespread attention from the society." Guo Yanhong pointed out that in response to these prominent problems, in terms of strengthening the medical service system and strengthening treatment guarantees, the National Health Commission has promoted the extensive treatment of children's blood diseases and malignant tumors in accordance with the "four determinations and two strengthenings". Among them, the "four determinations" refer to determining the treatment hospital, clinical pathway, single disease cost, and reimbursement ratio; the "two strengthenings" refer to strengthening treatment management and strengthening responsibility implementation.

Guo Yanhong introduced that the following work has been carried out for the treatment and management of children's blood diseases and malignant tumors:

First, a working system for the treatment of children's blood diseases and malignant tumors has been established. In July 2019, the National Health Commission, together with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Medical Insurance Administration, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the State Drug Administration, jointly carried out medical treatment and security management for children's blood diseases and malignant tumors. According to the principles of high incidence, clear diagnosis and treatment effects and heavy economic burden, the first batch of 10 diseases including aplastic anemia, immune thrombocytopenia and hemophilia were selected for treatment and management. At the same time, an expert committee on children's blood diseases and malignant tumors was established, the diagnosis and treatment technical plans for relevant diseases were improved, a medical record information registration and management system was established, local governments were guided to determine designated hospitals, and diagnosis and treatment collaboration groups were established to achieve standardized management and treatment of patients throughout the process. This year, based on the experience of the previous 10 diseases, the scope of the treatment of children's blood diseases and malignant tumors has been expanded, and 12 diseases such as brain gliomas and malignant germ cell tumors have also been included in the scope of treatment and management, reaching 22 diseases. At the same time, localities are also encouraged to include major children's diseases that are prevalent in their region and have been strongly reflected by the public into the scope of treatment and management based on actual conditions.

Second, we will coordinate and promote various supporting safeguard measures. The National Health Commission will strengthen communication and coordination with the departments of civil affairs, medical security, traditional Chinese medicine, and drug supervision to form a joint force. On the one hand, we will increase medical security and strengthen the effective connection of basic medical insurance, major disease insurance, medical assistance and other safeguard policies. At the same time, we will promote payment reform, encourage the implementation of single disease payment, simplify referral procedures, optimize reimbursement and settlement processes, improve the dynamic adjustment of the medical insurance catalog, expand the scope of drugs and treatment items covered by basic medical insurance, and significantly improve the level of security. On the other hand, we will strengthen the supply guarantee of drugs, organize relevant medical institutions in various places to monitor the supply guarantee of drugs, implement the requirements of the pilot work of centralized bulk procurement of drugs, promote bulk procurement, link quantity and price, ensure supply, and reduce medical expenses.

Third, measures to manage children's blood diseases and malignant tumors have been implemented. Data show that centralized treatment of serious diseases in children has reduced total medical expenses, reduced cross-provincial medical treatment, increased the proportion of medical insurance reimbursement, effectively reduced personal out-of-pocket expenses, and significantly reduced medical expenses for children's serious diseases that cause catastrophic expenditures for families. The average total hospitalization cost of children with blood diseases and malignant tumors has dropped by 5.69% compared with before the implementation of relevant policies in 2019, of which out-of-pocket expenses have dropped by 10.89%.

"In the next step, we will further increase our efforts and strengthen our work responsibilities, especially to strengthen the construction of the children's medical service system, optimize the layout of resources, coordinate the promotion of various supporting policies such as medical insurance and medicine, and do a solid job in the treatment and protection of major diseases such as blood diseases and malignant tumors in children, so that such a policy can benefit more children and families." Guo Yanhong said.