Cure the disorder of the same medicine with different prices, and launch the drug price comparison system in multiple places

2024-06-26 09:04 Author: Mao Yongxi Workers' Daily Editor in charge: Wu Jing

Drug pricing varies. Some patients worry about buying expensive drugs, while others worry that cheap drugs are unreliable

Cure the disorder of the same medicine with different prices, and launch the drug price comparison system in multiple places

More than 4.4 million data from more than 3000 pharmacies in Shaanxi make drug prices more transparent, and drug purchase costs are expected to decline by 10%~15%

"In the past, when I bought medicine, I saw a drugstore on my way, and I didn't bother to run around to compare it. Now the medical insurance APP has launched a drug price comparison system, and every time I buy medicine, I have to compare three prices." Yan Jun, who lives in Fengcheng Third Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, had a heart stent operation in March this year, and after treatment and discharge, I have to take Tigrilol tablets and other drugs for a long time.

At the beginning, Yan Jun bought them at his drugstore downstairs and paid 98 yuan for each box of Greylord tablets. Later, he found the drug price comparison window on the Shaanxi Medical Insurance APP, entered the name of the drug, and showed that the lowest price of drugs of the same specification in the province was 32.3 yuan, and the prices of various pharmacies ranged from 48.5 yuan to 98.7 yuan. After comprehensive consideration of price, distance and score, Yan Jun selected a pharmacy. Although the detour was more than 800 meters, each box was only 69 yuan, which was nearly 30 yuan cheaper.

The price difference of the same drug is too large, and patients do not understand the drug pricing. They often spend money unjustly due to asymmetric information, which has always been a pain point for residents to buy drugs every day. In recent years, with the development of online drug market, the difference in drug prices between different channels has further widened. Some patients worry about the high price of buying, while others worry about the unreliable cheap medicine. The multifarious pricing makes the amount of drugs become a confused account, and also provides an operating space for "drug price injection".

At the beginning of this year, the State Health Insurance Administration launched a special control on the price of "four identical drugs", pushed the price of drugs with the same generic name, brand, dosage form and specification back to a reasonable range, and a number of pharmaceutical enterprises took the initiative to reduce the online price. At the end of May, the State Medical Insurance Bureau issued a document to deploy the special action of "online shop, drug price check, data comparison, and governance", and innovate drug price monitoring methods. In drug price monitoring, the online drug selling platform drug "take out price", "hourly delivery", "instant delivery", "time limited delivery" and other intra city real-time delivery mode prices are introduced as anchors to compare drug prices of other channels to control unreasonable high prices. Yan Jun is one of the thousands of patients who have benefited from this.

At present, there are many online drug price comparison systems in China, and Xi'an is one of them. Residents log in to Shaanxi Medical Insurance APP or WeChat applet, click the convenient service bar on the home page to enter the drug price comparison window, enter the name of the drug to be purchased, and then you can find the manufacturer, specification, lowest price of the drug, and which pharmacies are selling it.

In addition, Shaanxi Medical Insurance APP also provides online diagnosis and treatment, prescription renewal for chronic diseases, on-demand distribution, prescription online overall settlement and other medical and drug purchase services, while ensuring the right to know and the right to choose of medical insurance patients, to achieve "more information and less errands".

By the middle of June, the drug price comparison system of Shaanxi Medical Insurance had covered more than 3000 pharmacies and collected more than 4.4 million drug data. Shaanxi Medical Insurance Bureau said that since the launch of the drug price comparison function, it has achieved remarkable results in improving the transparency of drug prices and reducing the burden on insured personnel, which is expected to reduce the cost of drug purchase for insured personnel by 10%~15%. For patients with chronic diseases and long-term medication, the amount saved will be more considerable.

Various medical insurance "price comparison magic tools" are intensively launched in various places, and the information such as drug prices is more open and transparent, which is not only conducive to the purchase of drugs by patients, but also will drive the healthy development of the drug market.

Relevant experts said that under the influence of circulation channels, sales models, pharmacy positioning and other factors, it is inevitable that there will be differences in drug prices, but it is a general trend to break the "data barrier" in the pharmaceutical industry and maintain the right to know and the right to choose for people to buy medicine. By eliminating this "asymmetric information gap", we can make the whole medical price more transparent, return to a reasonable range, and the market will be more standardized.

For drugstores, drug price comparison will promote them to optimize their sales strategies and reasonably adjust drug prices to improve their competitiveness. From the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry, drug price comparison is conducive to promoting the rational return of drug prices, promoting the optimal allocation of pharmaceutical resources, improving the overall efficiency and service quality of the industry, and promoting fair and healthy competition in the pharmaceutical market.

Some insiders said that with the price comparison system, drug prices will be further squeezed out, but this does not mean that retail pharmacies can only compete through "price reduction". On the one hand, pharmacies can reasonably adjust their sales models according to policies, gain competitive advantages by further controlling costs, and improve market competitiveness; On the other hand, it is necessary to improve the service ability and level, provide patients with high-quality, efficient and convenient comprehensive services, so as to gain long-term favor from patients and have stable customers. (Reporter Mao Yongxi, correspondent Zhu Pan)

key word: Drug price, price comparison, drug pricing, drug market, drug name

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