NHSA H1 2026 Press Conference: High-Value Consumables Price Governance, Seventh National Procurement Round and Medical Insurance Imaging Cloud

Full Translated Core Content

Source: National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) of China

Original date: July 9, 2026 (2026-07-09)

Publication time: July 26, 2026, 10:50

Source URL: https://www.nhsa.gov.cn/art/2026/7/9/art_14_21357.html

This article is compiled and translated from public information released by NHSA. Specific requirements are subject to the latest official releases of the regulatory authority.

NHSA H1 2026 Routine Press Conference Transcript

On the morning of July 9, the NHSA held its H1 2026 routine press conference. The following is the transcript.

Wang Guodong, Deputy Director of the NHSA General Office: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media. Welcome to the NHSA H1 routine press conference. Today's conference includes heads of seven NHSA units and is divided into two sessions. The first session includes Zhang Chenguang, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Planning, Finance and Regulations; Huang Xinyu, Director-General of the Department of Medical Administration; and Fan Weidong, Director of the Medical Insurance Center. First, I will briefly introduce the medical insurance work in H1 2026.

In the first half of this year, the medical insurance system operated generally steadily. As of the end of May, 1.319 billion people were insured under basic medical insurance nationwide, an increase of 4.69 million year on year. From January to May, basic medical insurance fund revenue was RMB 1.61 trillion, up 8.49% year on year; expenditure was RMB 1.21 trillion, up 2.12% year on year.

Key work advanced: improving the multi-tiered medical insurance system; accelerating the long-term care insurance system, covering about 320 million people; promoting coordinated development of the 'three medical' areas, deepening payment method reform, advancing the 12th batch of drug centralized procurement, launching a new batch of high-value medical consumables centralized procurement, and completing the second round of follow-on procurement for coronary stents; deepening pharmaceutical price governance, with special governance focused on artificially high prices of high-value medical consumables; strictly combating fraud and insurance abuse, with RMB 16.3 billion of medical insurance funds recovered by mid-June; optimizing medical insurance management services, with 147 million cross-provincial non-local medical treatment direct settlements from January to May; and deepening digital and intelligent empowerment of medical insurance, including advancing the medical insurance imaging cloud.

The first session ended and the Q&A session began.

Reporter question: What is the insured population situation, and what measures are there for flexible employment workers?

Zhang Chenguang: As of the end of May, the number of people insured under basic medical insurance increased by more than 4 million compared with the same period last year, and the insurance coverage rate remained stable at 95%. We are promoting the removal of household registration restrictions in megacities, encouraging flexible employment workers to participate in employee medical insurance, and promoting cross-provincial family mutual assistance using individual accounts.

Reporter question: What are the implementation results of the 2025 drug catalog and the commercial insurance innovative drug catalog?

Huang Xinyu: The current catalog includes 3,253 western medicines and Chinese patent medicines, and 892 traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces. The first commercial insurance innovative drug catalog includes 19 drugs and has been equipped in 1,486 designated medical institutions. This year's catalog adjustment has started and a new version is expected in November.

Reporter question: What is the progress of the medical insurance advance payment and settlement mechanism?

Fan Weidong: Instant settlement covers 315,500 medical institutions, accounting for 78.52%; in 2026, RMB 92.7 billion of medical insurance funds have been advanced; the 2025 annual settlement was fully completed on May 27.

Reporter question: What does the 2025 statistical bulletin on the development of medical security show?

Zhang Chenguang: At the end of 2025, 1.331 billion people were insured under basic medical insurance, an increase of 4.07 million year on year. Total fund revenue was RMB 3.59 trillion and total expenditure was RMB 3.01 trillion. Benefits were used 8.753 billion person-times.

The second session began. Liu Juan, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Benefits Security; Wang Xiaoning, Director-General of the Department of Price and Procurement; Gu Rong, Director-General of the Department of Fund Supervision; and Cao Wenbo, Deputy Director of the Big Data Center, attended.

Reporter question: What measures are there to support people with disabilities and support childbirth?

Liu Juan: Long-term care insurance covers 320 million people, with more than 50,000 long-term care workers. In maternity insurance, 28 provinces and 278 pooling areas have achieved 'zero out-of-pocket' for individual inpatient childbirth; assisted reproductive technology has been included in medical insurance; maternity allowances are paid directly to individuals.

Reporter question: What is the progress of the special rectification of prominent problems in medical insurance fund management?

Gu Rong: From January to June, RMB 16.35 billion of medical insurance funds were recovered, and 280,000 institutions were dealt with for violations. National flight inspections covered 227 cities and investigated and dealt with RMB 1.16 billion in violations. The access rate of the pre-reminder system reached 71%.

Reporter question: What is the progress of the medical insurance imaging cloud and cross-provincial retrieval?

Cao Wenbo: Five provinces and regions have completed provincial centralized storage. Cross-provincial retrieval was launched in November 2025. By the end of June, nearly 440 million index records had been collected. Through the '5-yuan' policy and the imaging cloud index, we are addressing problems such as 'cannot afford to store, cannot find, difficult across provinces, and slow retrieval'.

Reporter question: What are the measures and effects of pharmaceutical price governance?

Wang Xiaoning: We have promoted price reductions for 33 types of consumables in 10 major categories, including defibrillators and heart valves. At the national level, six batches covering nine major categories and 142 types of consumables have been organized for centralized procurement; the seventh batch focuses on digestive intervention. We have built a pharmaceutical price risk disposal mechanism and conducted interviews for price reductions on 855 drugs and 55 categories of consumables.

The press conference ended.

AIMEILI Regulatory Interpretation and Business Impact

What This Means for Medical Device Companies

For updates released by NHSA, companies should first determine whether the information concerns regulatory policy, guidance and standards, recall and safety, product performance, quality systems or post-market surveillance. Different types of information affect registration pathways, technical documents, labels and instructions for use, risk management and market maintenance differently and should not be treated simply as industry news.

For Chinese medical device companies, the priority is to turn the news into executable compliance actions: confirm whether the update involves similar products, similar technology routes or similar risk points; check whether existing documents still support target market requirements; and, where necessary, update risk management, performance verification, clinical evaluation, labels and instructions for use, distributor communication and post-market surveillance records.

Documents Companies Should Check First

Companies should prioritize checking the product's intended use, classification basis, ISO 13485 quality management system evidence, risk management file, performance verification data, clinical evaluation or clinical evidence, labels and instructions for use, authorization documents and existing registration certificates.

Common Risks

• Unclear classification judgment.
• Incomplete evidence chain in documentation.
• Labels and instructions for use not localized.
• Unclear responsibilities of the authorized representative.
• Insufficient post-market maintenance arrangements.

AIMEILI View

The NHSA H1 2026 routine press conference conveyed several policy signals closely related to medical device companies. AIMEILI's regulatory team interprets them as follows.

High-Value Medical Consumables Price Governance and Expanded Centralized Procurement Affect Registration Strategy and Market Access

The Department of Price and Procurement confirmed that price reductions have been promoted for 33 types of high-value consumables and that the seventh national organized consumables procurement round has been launched, focusing on digestive intervention. This means that companies in relevant segments, such as endoscopic consumables and stents, need to reassess product pricing and medical insurance payment standards. For foreign companies planning to enter the Chinese market, it is advisable to refer to centralized procurement price expectations before registration and adjust product classification and clinical evaluation strategies. At the same time, the principle that 'centralized procurement is not for new drugs; new drugs are not subject to centralized procurement' leaves room for innovative products. Companies should prioritize obtaining 'new drug' recognition through the special approval procedure for innovative medical devices to avoid the price reduction pressure of centralized procurement.

Medical Insurance Payment Reform and Instant Settlement Affect Hospital Procurement and Payment Collection

The advancement of medical insurance payment method reform, including Version 3.0 of payment by disease category, and the instant settlement mechanism will shorten hospitals' payment cycles to suppliers. For medical device companies, this means improved cash flow, but it also requires companies to cooperate with hospitals on cost accounting and provide more cost-effective product portfolios. Companies are advised to monitor DRG/DIP grouping scheme adjustments and optimize technical documents to support clinical pathways and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Medical Insurance Imaging Cloud and Cross-Provincial Retrieval Bring Opportunities for Imaging Equipment and IT Companies

The medical insurance imaging cloud's cross-provincial retrieval involves standards for digital image storage, transmission and indexing. Manufacturers of CT, MRI, DR and other imaging equipment need to ensure that the digital images output by their equipment comply with the medical insurance imaging cloud index specifications and support the cloud storage functions required by the '5-yuan' policy. At the same time, IT solution providers can focus on integration needs with the medical insurance imaging cloud platform and expand business in PACS system upgrades, data security and related areas.

Fund Supervision and the Pre-Reminder System Strengthen Post-Market Compliance Requirements

The Department of Fund Supervision emphasized that the access rate of the pre-reminder system has reached 71% and that 'driver's license-style points' supervision has been established down to the individual level. This means that when medical device companies promote products, they need to ensure that use complies with the rules in the medical insurance intelligent supervision rule library. For companies involved in high-value consumables and examination and testing reagents, it is advisable to proactively adjust product labels, instructions for use and training materials against the Medical Insurance Fund Intelligent Supervision Rule Library to avoid medical insurance refusal or impact on corporate credit due to non-compliant use.

Commercial Insurance Innovative Drug Catalog and Multi-Tiered Protection Provide Alternative Payment Paths for Innovative Medical Devices

Although the commercial insurance innovative drug catalog currently mainly targets drugs, NHSA has stated that it will continue to guide commercial health insurance to play a role in multi-tiered protection. For high-value innovative medical devices such as surgical robots and brain-computer interfaces, companies should monitor the possible expansion of the commercial insurance catalog and cooperate with insurers in advance to develop dedicated insurance products as a supplement to basic medical insurance. At the same time, medical insurance catalog adjustments have included new technologies such as surgical robots in medical service price items, lowering the threshold for hospital procurement and facilitating rapid product promotion.

Overall, this press conference reflects the deep impact of medical insurance policy on the entire medical device chain: from registration approval, price formation and hospital procurement to post-market supervision. Companies should proactively establish cross-departmental compliance teams, continuously track centralized procurement developments, payment reform and regulatory rule updates, and adjust China registration strategies and market access plans in a timely manner.

FAQ

Can the July 9, 2026 NHSA H1 2026 routine press conference transcript be used directly as a basis for regulatory submission?

No. It is intended for preliminary understanding and project judgment. Formal submissions must still be based on the latest requirements of the target country's regulatory authority, the product classification conclusion and the company's actual documentation.

What should companies do first after seeing such an update?

Conduct a documentation gap assessment first. Confirm whether the update affects the registration pathway, technical file, labeling, quality management system or post-market maintenance, and then decide whether regulatory action or document updates are needed.

Source and Applicable Boundaries

This article is based on public information from NHSA. It is intended for preliminary understanding, document preparation and project planning, and does not replace the formal requirements of the target country's regulatory authority, testing conclusions or legal advice.

Specific requirements are subject to the latest official releases of the regulatory authority.