BEIJING, March 28 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong, published its review on China's medical insurance information system today.
Currently, medical insurance in China covers mostly urban employees. The overall coverage rate is very low. Over 40% of the urban population and over 70% of the rural population have no medical security at all. Moreover, as the labor force becomes more mobile with a growing trend of independent and flexible employment, implementing medical security for all becomes a big challenge. In the Guiding Opinions on the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the National Development and Reform Commission put forward that by 2010, all citizens should have basic medical security coverage. To achieve this goal, one key area of medical insurance is to enhance the existing medical insurance information system, which is currently characterized as follows:
1. Lack of strategic technology backup
If the existing medical insurance information system is to be pushed forward at multiple levels, IT application planning should be adapted as a business guide to elevate the existing infrastructure from the tactical level to a strategic level. To strengthen the link between IT and services, the medical insurance information system is to be built around a business services-centered IT organization model, which is gradually becoming a trend. This naturally requires forward-looking and flexible IT planning.
2. Complicated administrative structure
Many entities are involved at different levels of system building, operation maintenance and application hence coordination becomes difficult. At the system building and operation maintenance level, medical insurance information system projects in prefectures and cities often involve various entities, such as the social security bureau, the city information center, system implementers, services providers and engineering project supervisors. The line of responsibilities is unclear as many parties play the management role at the same time. At the application level, medical insurance information systems involve such entities as the medical insurance administration department; medical insurance services institutions, the insured and insurance units. Meanwhile, medical insurance information systems in some cities also provide database interfaces, functions and services to other public departments, such as the departments for four insurances (namely endowments insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance and work injury insurance), civil affairs, industry and commerce, and taxation. System networks are complicated and coordination is difficult. The level of IT applications in other related entities has a rather big influence on medical insurance system building, particularly when it comes to the connection between hospitals and medical insurance information systems.
3. High system performance requirements
Such a complex technology structure requires a high system performance, and naturally it is inevitable that system building and operation maintenance become more difficult. Medical insurance requires the establishment of massive personal accounts, processing a large volume of data, and use of computer information systems to perform management tasks. In particular, real time transmission has now put forward rather high requirements for information system building. Medical insurance information systems are characterized by their broad coverage, more access points, many operation personnel and sensitive information for storage and transmission. Efficient, continuous and stable system operations have become key factors affecting social stability. As medical insurance information systems progress, they have become more convenient to use at the front end while their backstage technologies are more and more complicated. Correspondingly, their application becomes less difficult. However, system building and operation maintenance are notably more difficult.
4. Policy changes and social developments leading to changes in requirements
Policy changes may put forward higher requirements for the ability of system reconstruction. Currently, the medical insurance system is still in a reform stage, and this will continue for a considerable length of time. Policies need to be continuously adjusted and improved. More people should be expanded continuously. All kinds of guaranteed systems are also being gradually improved. Changes in some management models, business workflows and organizational structure will be inevitable. This is bound to put forward higher requirements for the ability of reconstruction for medical insurance information systems.
CCID Consulting analyst Liu Xu comments that to achieve the medical insurance information system building goals for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, local governments in China need to make full analysis of the various factors that affect medical insurance information system building and on this basis, formulate system building strategies most suitable to their local situation. These mainly include: high-level officials from the concerned government departments pay high attention, project plans need to be developed based on a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the medical insurance system and business demand as well as with reference to various project knowledge. The government needs to formulate project policies, perform project management and select scientific and effective government-enterprise cooperation models in a forward-looking manner, and accurately specify its role in information system building.
About CCID Consulting
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd (also known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts. The Company's business scope has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.
Based on four major competitive areas of the powerful data channels, industrial resources, intense knowledge and deep understanding of information technology, CCID Consulting provides customers with consulting, research and IT outsourcing services covering strategy planning, IT application, marketing strategy, human resources and information technology outsourcing. Our customers range from industrial users in IT, telecommunications, energy, finance, automobile, to government departments at all levels and diversified industrial parks. CCID Consulting is committed to becoming the No. 1 brand for strategy consulting, the No. 1 consultant for enterprise management and the No. 1 expert in market research. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ccidconsulting.com/default_e.asp .
