China works to improve personal insurance's coverage and quality

21:41, December 09, 2020

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  Li: Boost role of insurance sector

  A community worker helps an elderly patient with online health insurance services at a hospital in Anqing, Anhui province, in July, 2020. [Photo by Huang Youan/For China Daily] .China will adopt a host of policy measures to promote the scale and quality of the personal insurance sector and facilita

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  Beijing air quality continues to improve

  A view of the Corner Tower at the Palace Museum in Beijing on Sept 3, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)Beijings air quality has continued to improve over the first 10 months this year, with the number of days of good air quality totaling 221. Thats 31 more than the same period last year, according to the Beijing Ecology and Environment Bureau.The environmental authority recently published the air quality report from January to October, noting that the concentration of four major pollutants had hit a record low.The cumulative concentration of fine particles — PM2.5 — averaged 39 micrograms per cubic meter for the first 10 months, a year-on-year drop of 7.1 percent.Local authorities will continue to focus on key sources of pollution, including heavy diesel vehicles, volatile organic compounds and dust, as the city enters the winter season.Beijing is coordinating its economic and social development with air pollution prevention and control, giving the green light to companies with superior ecological performance and fewer emissions, thereby encouraging enterprises to strengthen their daily management and upgrade pollution-reduction techniques.

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  China approves first regulation on health-insurance supervision

  BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has approved a draft of the countrys first regulation on supervising the use of medical insurance funds, a document that fills a legal gap in the field.A health insurance staff checks medicines in a pharmacy of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University in Quanzhou, southeast Chinas Fujian Province, Aug. 2, 2018. (Photo: Xinhua)Approved after a State Council executive meeting held on Wednesday, the draft regulation defines the rights and responsibilities of medical-insurance authorities, designated medical institutions and the insured.The draft stipulates timely settlement of medical bills and prompt allocation of insurance funds.According to the regulation, insurance fraud will be punished by various means, including fines and the revocation of medical certificates.So far, 10 provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, have established special institutions for the supervision of medical-insurance funds, said the National Healthcare Security Administration."The service-oriented draft aims to strengthen and optimize the oversight of medical insurance funds, which is of great importance to protecting peoples legitimate rights to medical insurance," said Ying Yazhen, deputy head of a national healthcare security research institute co-managed by the administration.