SHENZHEN is expediting health-care reform by promoting new calculating system for medical bills in hospitals, according to the latest government gazette published by the city government, the Daily Sunshine reported Thursday.

According to the report, the city will promote new calculating system for patients’ medical bills in outpatient and inpatient departments, which will cover all hospitals by 2020.

The calculating system is based on disease categories and will be widely adopted in the city’s hospitals, while ambulatory surgeries and certain outpatient medical services will be gradually included in the system.

Some hospitals will adopt the Diagnosis-related Group (DRG) system, which classifies inpatient cases and categorizes those with similar clinical features into one group because they are expected to use the same level of hospital resources. Patients in the same group will have the same standards applied in the calculation of their medical bills.

According to the report, if a patient has to receive a complicated treatment or be hospitalized for a very long time, their medical bill can be calculated by item or based on the number of days they are hospitalized.

The city will also set up a medical insurance fund management system to help grass-roots hospital groups manage spare funds and promote hierarchical diagnosis in hospitals and community clinics.

(Zhang Yang)