The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee held this month once again made important arrangements for the reform of the medical and health system. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese path to modernization (hereinafter referred to as the Decision) released on July 21 proposed to deepen the reform of the medical and health system, including deepening the reform of public hospitals oriented by public welfare, establishing a charging mechanism led by medical services, improving the salary system, and establishing a dynamic adjustment mechanism for staffing. Jin Chunlin, Director of the Shanghai Health and Health Development Research Center, told Zhongxin Health that in the current context, the Decision of the Third Plenum once again clarifies the public welfare nature of public hospitals, with a focus on correcting their profit seeking behavior. For medical institutions, medical service prices are the main source of income and the primary way for them to offset medical expenses. Zhongxin Health has noticed that the Decision of the Third Plenum mentioned the establishment of a fee mechanism led by medical services. Jin Chunlin introduced that medical service prices refer to the charging standards for medical technology projects directly provided by hospitals, excluding the cost of drugs and medical consumables. Although the charging standards are uniformly formulated by the National Healthcare Security Administration, hospitals still have significant room for operation in terms of service volume, drug specifications, and technological applications, which may lead to excessive medical treatment and resource waste. In 2021, the National Healthcare Security Administration and eight other departments jointly issued the "Pilot Plan for Deepening the Reform of Medical Service Prices" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing to explore and form replicable and promotable experiences in medical service price reform through a 3-5 year pilot program. By 2025, the pilot experience of deepening the reform of medical service prices will be promoted nationwide, and the medical service price mechanism with classified management, hospital participation, scientific determination, and dynamic adjustment will be mature and finalized, and the price leverage function will be fully utilized. In Jin Chunlin's opinion, the government should continue to increase its financial investment in public hospitals and reasonably formulate hospital fee standards. How to allocate medical resources reasonably, improve doctors' work enthusiasm, and avoid excessive medical treatment is an urgent problem to be solved in the reform of public hospitals. Jin Chunlin believes that this involves the reform of the salary system, and the government should clarify the investment standards, methods, and areas to ensure that the investment can effectively promote the return of public welfare in public hospitals. In May of this year, Xue Haining, Deputy Director of the System Reform Department of the National Health Commission, stated at a press conference that we will promote the reform of the salary system in public hospitals, accelerate the establishment of a salary system that reflects job responsibilities and technical labor value, establish a salary level and structure that is in line with public welfare orientation, and mobilize the enthusiasm of medical personnel to participate in the reform; We should focus on pilot cities for medical service price reform, pilot provinces, and demonstration cities for the reform and high-quality development of public hospitals, continuously deepen the reform of medical service prices, streamline the comparison of medical service prices, and optimize the income structure of hospitals. Jin Chunlin suggested that in the reform of the salary system, a reasonable standard should be set for the total salary of hospitals, and the proportion of fixed salary and floating salary should be distinguished. The floating salary should be linked to service quality, treatment effectiveness, and effective utilization of medical resources to incentivize doctors to provide high-quality medical services, rather than simply pursuing service quantity. Not only the salary reform of doctors, Jin Chunlin also believes that when evaluating the performance of public hospitals and hospital directors, we should start from the perspective of connotation development, focus on the improvement of clinical skills, treatment effectiveness, patient satisfaction, and other aspects of the hospital, rather than just emphasizing scale expansion, equipment updates, and income growth. The government should incentivize hospitals and doctors to achieve the government's desired health goals, such as reducing disease incidence and improving treatment success rates, through medical insurance funds and financial subsidies. (New Society)