Chinese government has issued a circular on Monday intended to
tighten control of costs for medical services and drugs.
The Ministry of Health and the State Administration of
Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly issued the circular.
The circular stated that public health and traditional Chinese
medicine administrations should set up control indices for medical
care organizations of all kinds and prohibit them from raising fees
or charges without government approval, charging extra fees for
unregistered services or repeatedly charging fees for the same
service.
The circular stipulated that medical organizations that violated
the regulations would face penalties. Serious cases would result in
the punishment of leaders of medical organizations, whose offenses
would be publicly revealed.
(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2008)
