Governing cross-border healthcare in mainland China: a scoping review of national policies from 2002 to 2022

Xiang Yan; Zixuan Han; Pengpeng Ye; Anthony Gar-On Yeh; Xiaoping Xu; Anne W M Lee; Kenneth M C Cheung; Peng Gong; Shenjing He

doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2024.101046

Governing cross-border healthcare in mainland China: a scoping review of national policies from 2002 to 2022

Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2024 Mar 14:45:101046. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2024.101046. eCollection 2024 Apr.

Authors

Xiang Yan^{1

2

3}, Zixuan Han^{3

4

5}, Pengpeng Ye⁶, Anthony Gar-On Yeh⁷, Xiaoping Xu⁸, Anne W M Lee^{9

10}, Kenneth M C Cheung^{4

5}, Peng Gong¹¹, Shenjing He^{3

8

11}

Affiliations

¹ College of Architecture and Environment, Institute of Urbanization Strategy and Architecture Research, Sichuan University, China.
² Healthcare Evaluation and Organizational Analysis (HEOA) Group, Institute for Healthy Cities and West China Research Center for Rural Health Development, Sichuan University, China.
³ Department of Urban Planning and Design, and the Social Infrastructure for Equity and Wellbeing (SIEW) Lab, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ Orthopaedic Center, The University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁶ National Centre for Non-Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁷ Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁸ The University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
⁹ Clinical Oncology Center, The University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Oncology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹¹ Urban Systems Institute, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

This study reviews national-level policies regulating cross-border healthcare in mainland China after it acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Policy documents from official websites of the State Council and 19 ministries were screened, from which 487 policy documents were analyzed. WTO's five modes of trade and WHO's six building blocks of healthcare system were used to guide the analysis of policymaking patterns, charting of policy evolution process, identification of key policy areas, differentiation of 29 detailed policy themes, and identification of major countries/regions involved in cross-border healthcare. The findings lead to four policy recommendations: (1) to establish a national-level committee to govern cross-border healthcare, (2) to build an information system to comprehensively integrate various information on cross-border healthcare consumption and provision, (3) to take more proactive policy actions in healthcare internationalization, and (4) to carry out reform experiments in key sub-national regions to fully explore various possibilities in developing and regulating cross-border healthcare.

Keywords: China; Cross-border healthcare; Health reform; Policy review; Trade in healthcare services.

Publication types

Review