Rules clarified for COVID testing costs

The National Healthcare Security Administration has recently answered some questions about the payment of fees incurred from the nucleic acid testing of COVID-19.  

Local governments should pay the cost of normalized COVID-19 nucleic acid testing, while basic medical insurance should cover the cost of nucleic acid tests insured patients take while seeking medical treatment according to the administration, Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

The administration recently issued a circular to ask local medical insurance departments to stop paying for large-scale nucleic acid testing. 

It pointed out such behavior was not in compliance with medical insurance policy.

According to a State Council guideline on the fight against COVID-19 issued in May 2020, the cost of nucleic acid testing for high-risk groups should be shouldered by local governments, and the cost for people voluntarily taking tests should be covered by their employers or themselves.

The high-risk groups include close contacts, inbound personnel, inpatients and caregivers, and medical staff.

In June 2020, the administration issued a notice saying local medical insurance departments should bring nucleic acid and antibody testing into the provincial-level medical insurance catalog after taking into account both the need for epidemic prevention and control and local payment capacity.

In general, the fees incurred from tests for high-risk groups and for diagnosis and treatment of patients were paid by medical insurance funds, the Economic View news app reported.

According to the country's Social Insurance Law, the medical costs incurred from public health issues should not be covered by basic medical insurance, and the normalized nucleic acid testing in large-scale populations is a public health issue, said Tang Jun, research fellow from the Center for Public Policy Research of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Liao Cangyi, an associate professor from China University of Political Science and Law, said "the money of basic medical insurance is used for curing sickness, while the normalized nucleic acid testing is for infectious disease prevention and monitoring, which is a public health issue. The two cannot be confused."

According to media reports, some places like Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, have lowered the frequency of normalized nucleic acid testing from once every two days to every three days.