On March 15, the Hong Kong stock Internet Healthcare rallied. As of press release, Dr. Ping An has risen by more than 8%, Ali Health has risen by more than 6%, Jingdong Health has risen by more than 5%, and Maddie Weikang, Dingdong Health, etc. have risen one after another.
In terms of ETFs, as of press release, the Hong Kong Stock Connect Pharmaceutical ETF has risen over 4%, while the Hong Kong Pharmaceutical ETF, Hong Kong Stock Biotech ETF, Biotech ETF Hong Kong Stock, Hang Seng Pharmaceutical ETF, Hong Kong Stock Connect Pharmaceutical ETF, and Hong Kong Stock Innovative Drug ETF have all risen more than 3%.
According to the news, on March 13, in response to the proposal to include remote diagnosis fees for Internet remote consultations in the medical insurance settlement system, the National Health Insurance Administration recently clarified that the price policies for remote consultation services provided by public medical institutions are determined by public medical institutions or provincial health insurance departments in the region where they are located in accordance with the principle of localization. If “Internet +” medical services have the same content as offline medical services within the scope of medical insurance payments, and the prices charged by the corresponding public medical institutions are implemented, they can be included in medical insurance payments.
Whether online medical treatment can be reimbursed is a topic that has received a lot of social attention. To this end, the National Health Insurance Administration issued the “Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting Medical Insurance Payments for “Internet +” Medical Services” in October 2020, which clearly includes “Internet +” medical services in medical insurance payments. Since then, the guidance has gradually been turned into practical action, and significant progress has been made in this work. This reply confirms that this work has already entered the full implementation stage.
“Internet+Healthcare” mainly includes two models: a third-party Internet platform and a hospital building its own Internet hospital. According to data, by the end of 2021, there were 298 million online medical users in China, accounting for 28.9% of the total number of netizens. The combination of the Internet and healthcare has reshaped medical business processes and models, triggering leaps and bounds in the development of hospitals. The content of the “Internet +” medical service is also very rich. It includes not only patients seeking medical treatment online, but also patients receiving remote consultations and air examinations by experts from other places at medical institutions, and even joint surgery by doctors from the two places.
Health insurance benefits have continued to increase in recent years, and the inclusion of “Internet+” medical services in health insurance is a benefit enhancement that has had a more far-reaching impact and has a higher degree of benefit to the people.
Moreover, the significance of this move does not stop there; it has a strong boosting effect in promoting the rapid and healthy development of Internet medical care, driving the improvement of the level of primary care, and enabling people to see famous doctors at their doorstep.
It is worth noting that the overall market size of Internet healthcare is constantly expanding. According to Ai Quanwei's research report, from 2015 to 2019, the compound annual growth rate of the Internet medical industry was 44%, and it is in a state of ultra-rapid development. According to the forecast of Huaan Securities, China's Internet medical market is expected to reach 87.61 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 25.1% over the previous year.
The China Business Industry Research Institute pointed out that the country encourages and supports all parties to increase the deployment of next-generation information technology such as 5G, big data, and artificial intelligence in the medical industry, and China's Internet medical market has developed rapidly in recent years. The market size of China's Internet healthcare industry reached 223 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 43.87% over the previous year, and is expected to reach 364.7 billion yuan in 2023.
Huaan Securities believes that in a situation where the market policy environment improves and medical demand increases, in the future, as various application scenarios promote the deep integration of Internet+ healthcare, Internet medical services, medical informatization, pharmaceutical e-commerce, Internet commercial insurance, medical smart hardware, etc. will become industry priorities, forming a complete closed loop of pharmaceuticals.
The team believes that at this stage, Internet medical services are more dependent on a closed loop of online and offline medical care — the development of medical services will focus on deepening the construction and exploration of the Internet hospital model, complemented by optimizing online consultation platforms.
Furthermore, in the context of the “14th Five-Year Plan” Strategy for Expanding Domestic Demand, it can be expected that more Internet medical service projects will be included in the scope of medical insurance payments in the future. At that time, the industry will usher in faster development.
Great Wall Guorui Securities said earlier that policy is the direct driving force for the development of the medical IT industry in the short term, and the growing demand for healthcare among the people is the underlying logic for the rapid development of the medical IT industry. In the future, the market will be concentrated on leading companies with a complete product line and strong delivery capabilities; companies with a high degree of specialization in segmented fields will also have certain opportunities.
Great Wall Guorui Securities suggests focusing on segments such as core hospital systems such as Internet medical care, public health informatization construction, electronic medical records, etc., and emerging circuit leaders such as medical AI, smart wards, and medical robots for a long time.
Fu Jiao, a senior researcher at the Star Map Financial Research Institute, said, “The development of Internet medicine will help ease the conflict between the imbalance of medical resources in China and the increasing health and medical needs of residents.” Fu Jiao believes that, on the one hand, it can improve medical efficiency and reshape the medical treatment paradigm; on the other hand, it is conducive to promoting the decline of high-quality medical resources.