When it comes to dental implants, many people’s first reaction is that they are expensive. Planting a tooth can range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and is not included in the medical insurance reimbursement, which discourages many patients. Therefore, in recent years, many people have called for the inclusion of dental implants in medical insurance, squeezing the price moisture and reducing the burden of patients through centralized procurement.
On April 29, Ningbo Medical Security Bureau announced that it was the first to fully launch the price limit payment policy for dental implant insurance in China, and organized 100 medical institutions to carry out collective signing. Official information shows that for brands within the planting catalogue of contracted medical institutions in Ningbo, the whole process of planting a tooth requires only 3000 yuan for domestic production and 3500 yuan for import, which can be paid by using the medical insurance account over the years.
At the same time, the oral implant alliance procurement led by Sichuan Province has also entered the reporting stage of historical procurement data, and the centralized collection of dental implants is on the way.
Ningbo is the first country to promote the policy of guaranteed and limited price payment for dental implant
On January 11 this year, in order to respond to the voice of the masses and reduce the burden of dental implantation, Ningbo Medical Insurance Bureau coordinated with 14 suppliers of implant, abutment, crown and other consumables to officially launch the price guarantee and limited payment policy for implant dentists.
On April 29, Ningbo Medical Security Bureau announced again that it was the first to fully launch the price limit payment policy for dental implant insurance in China, and organized 100 medical institutions to carry out collective signing. For brands within the planting catalogue of contracted medical institutions in Ningbo, the whole process of planting a tooth requires only 3000 yuan for domestic production and 3500 yuan for import, which can be paid by using the medical insurance account over the years.
At present, 103 medical institutions in Ningbo have participated in the medical insurance dental implant project, and promised to charge all insured persons in accordance with the agreed standards, regardless of medical insurance payment or cash payment. 14 mainstream brands such as imported wolan, DIO and domestic chuangying and zdi have entered the catalogue.
Ningbo is one of the few areas in China that can use the medical insurance account over the years to pay for dental implants. Since 2016, Ningbo has clearly included dental implants in the payment scope of the medical insurance account over the years and paid them in full. According to the statistics from the municipal medical insurance bureau, as of March 2022, there were 432 designated dental medical institutions (including the stomatology department of general hospitals) and 2790 dental practitioners in the city. In 2021, the medical insurance account and mutual aid account paid 606 million yuan for oral medical expenses.
“Ningbo has a high level of economic development and a high prevalence of dental implants. There is a good foundation for the trial price limit of dental implants.” Introduction by Tu Zhijun, pharmaceutical price and bidding procurement department of Ningbo medical insurance bureau. The penetration rate of implant teeth in Ningbo is about 120 per 10000 people, which is much higher than the average penetration rate of 25-30 in China and close to the average level of 140150 per 10000 people in European and American developed countries. In addition, foreign brands account for more than 90% of Ningbo implant market, and the substitution rate of domestic brands is low. In the price of an implant, the price of consumables is less than 30%, and the service cost is as high as about 70%, which shows that there is a lot of room for the price reduction of implant.
it is understood that the cost of dental implants usually includes two parts, one is the cost of consumables such as implants, abutments and crowns, and the other is the cost of medical services planted by medical institutions. By comprehensively considering the costs of manufacturers and the service expenses of medical institutions, Ningbo Medical Insurance Bureau limits the price of consumables to 1000 yuan for domestic and 1500 yuan for import, and the medical service expenses of medical institutions (Level II and below) to 2000 yuan. In other words, as long as you choose the implant in the catalogue, it costs only 3000 yuan to plant a domestic one and 3500 yuan to import one
For the problem of whether the decline in price will lead to the decline in quality, Tu Zhijun said that whether an implant is good or not mainly includes three parts: in addition to the quality of consumables, the planting level of doctors and the later maintenance of patients. Most of the consumables (implants) selected for the medical insurance dental implant project are mature brands in the market. The price reduction is mainly through price restriction, which is the result of the joint profit transfer of manufacturers and medical institutions. At the same time, the medical insurance implant catalog brand will also be dynamically adjusted. As long as enterprises are willing, they can apply for inclusion in the catalog according to procedures.
The relevant person in charge of the municipal medical insurance bureau said that the implementation of the medical insurance implant project is expected to promote the return of the overall market price to rationality. In the next step, the implant brands in the medical insurance implant catalogue will be dynamically adjusted according to the recommendations of medical institutions. The original intention of the implementation of this project is not to “cut all the implant prices across the board”, but to have more affordable options, so that ordinary people who are sensitive to the price can also afford to grow teeth and see a doctor.
implant collection is on the line
At the same time, the voice of the society for the centralized collection of dental implants has always been high, but the degree of privatization of the dental industry is very high, and entering public hospitals is not the only way out. Dental implant enterprises accustomed to seeking “huge profits” in the dental industry do not have high enthusiasm to participate in the centralized collection.
Since the beginning of 2022, the policy level has begun to set the tone for the centralized collection of dental implants. On January 10 this year, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council and decided to carry out the centralized procurement of drugs and high-value medical consumables in a normalized and institutionalized manner. Among them, he proposed to gradually expand the coverage of centralized procurement of high-value medical consumables and carry out centralized procurement of orthopaedic consumables, drug balloons and dental implants concerned by the masses at the national and provincial levels respectively. This is the first time that a centralized collection of dental implants has been proposed at the national level.
In order to implement the requirements of the executive meeting of the State Council on “accelerating and expanding” centralized volume procurement, the National Medical Insurance Bureau has made unified deployment and coordination for local alliance centralized procurement. Sichuan Medical Insurance Bureau said in March this year that it would take the lead in organizing inter provincial dental implant belt procurement in 30 provinces.
Subsequently, Ningxia and Shanxi also promoted the implementation of centralized mining by streamlining charging items and limiting the independent pricing items and charging scale of public hospitals; Since March and April this year, Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province have disclosed information one after another, and have actively participated in the centralized procurement of dental implants in the provincial cross regional alliance; Henan Province and Zhejiang Province have also carried out the activities of benefiting the people with the centralized purchase price of dental implants, and subsidized the centralized purchase of dental implants and other projects in designated hospitals.
Up to now, Sichuan, Ningxia, Shanxi, Jiangsu and other places have also successively carried out the reporting of historical purchase data of dental medical consumables. The pilot of local centralized purchase will play a leading and exemplary role in the national centralized purchase of dental implants and the price limit of medical insurance.
On April 25, Sichuan Province issued the notice on the second round of information collection of dental high-value medical consumables, which said that due to the receipt of some “applications from manufacturers”, the provincial drug recruitment center decided to open another round of information filling of dental implant related consumables. Historically, product information reporting is generally a precursor of centralized purchase.
Some insiders also said that in addition to making ordinary patients no longer “look at their teeth and sigh”, the inclusion of implant teeth into centralized collection has a more far-reaching significance. First of all, China’s development of implant production time is short, and there is a big gap compared with the quality and scientific research investment of international first-line old products. Centralized mining can effectively drive the domestic implant market, improve its market share, and then promote the quality improvement and technology research and development of domestic brands.
Secondly, the price reduction of dental implant collection is conducive to sinking into community hospitals and other grass-roots medical institutions, providing more convenient and cost-effective services for patients in need, and promoting high-end medical care into the public.
Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) : the profit source of the company is medical services, which is less affected by centralized procurement
Since the news of centralized dental purchase came out in the second half of 2021, the share price of “Yamao” Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) has been falling. As of April 29, Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) closed at 128.35 yuan / share, down nearly 70% from the peak in June last year.
Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) released the annual report of 2021 and the first quarterly report of 2022 on 27th. According to the first quarter report, Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) 2022’s revenue in the first quarter was 655 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.74%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 166 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.25%; The non net profit attributable to the parent company was 163 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.99%; The net cash flow from operating activities was 64.8 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 49.45%.
Among them, the quarterly report shows that Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) in the first quarter, the income of planting medical services was 1017312 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.71%, which was lower than the growth rate of 54.77% in the same period last year.
In this regard, Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) in the institutional investigation on April 27, said that this has a certain relationship with the expectation caused by centralized mining. Due to the impact of the epidemic situation and economic status, the natural growth of planting this year could have been higher.
However, Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) also said that the profit source of the company was medical services rather than consumables. Before, the planting price was determined by the brand of the implant, which caused a misunderstanding. The centralized collection of dental implants will certainly be done, but it will separate implants from medical services. Recently, the document of Beijing Medical Insurance Bureau stipulates the upper limit of the service charge for dental implants. The service charge for dental implants is divided into three sections. The traditional service charge and the price of oral scanning are reduced to 60%, but the digital scheme design is distinguished, and the charge is 3000 yuan, which adds up to more than 9000 yuan, exceeding the expectation. For planting, digitization is indispensable, so generally speaking, the service price of planting has basically not changed.
Moreover, Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) also said that the centralized collection of dental implants will certainly be done, but it may not be smooth, because the share of public hospitals is too small to change the quantity at the price. For example, aobitai has made 200W pieces in China, accounting for 30% of the share. It will certainly not participate in centralized mining. Therefore, the final result of centralized purchase may be to strive for a little space for domestic brands.
From the first quarterly report, northbound capital “Hong Kong Central Clearing”, Glan’s China Europe medical innovation and Gao yiqingrui No. 6 Swiss bank fund increased their holdings of Topchoice Medical Co.Inc(600763) but GF healthcare fund also reduced their positions.
