TCM treatment prices will be raised within the year, say authorities

TCM treatment prices will be raised within the year, say authorities

• Source: Global Times
• [09:04 March 22 2011]
• Comments

A man receives acupuncture at a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in June 2010. Photo: CFP

By Yan Shuang

People can soon expect to pay more for treatments such as acupuncture, the Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) announced Sunday.

The administration has worked out a draft plan of price adjustments for TCM treatments in Beijing, which will be released as early as June.

Acupuncture will be more expensive than before, according to a Beijing Youth Daily report Monday. The current price for acupuncture at Beijing's TCM public hospitals is 4 yuan ($0.61), but the price will be raised based on where the needles need to be placed or on the types of diseases the patients are suffering, the report said.

TCM treatment and medicine prices are set artificially low by the National Development and Reform Commission. As a result, TCM hospitals are having trouble making ends meet.

"The price is so low that it has, to some extent, restricted the development of TCM," said Tu Zhitao, deputy director of the administration, according to the report.

"The money that doctors make off of their TCM treatments is disproportionate to their work and experience," Li Yong, a doctor with Guang'anmen Hospital under the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, told the Global Times earlier.

TCM hospitals are also driven by profit, and they have resorted to prescribing patients expensive medicines or suggesting Western style treatments so that they can still make money while charging low prices for TCM treatments, said a professor with the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine who preferred to remain anonymous.

"Price increases won't solve the problem, and patients will be unhappy about it," he said.

"If the government is willing to spend more on allowances for TCM hospitals, and have public hospitals turned into non-profit institutions, then residents can enjoy cheap TCM treatments and hospital employees won't worry about their pay," he told the Global Times.