Health & Beauty

On August 22, the Ningbo Medical Insurance Bureau interviewed 5 suppliers of imported dental implants to directly address the pain points of "expensive dental implants". "The medical insurance fund must adhere to the principle of'full coverage, basic guarantee, multi-level, and sustainable'. We must ensure that the people can afford to have teeth and improve their happiness." Gao Wenhui, director of the Medical Price and Bidding Purchasing Department of the Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau, said bluntly , To give full play to the leverage of medical insurance to return dental implants to a reasonable price range. Most of the suppliers present agreed with the price negotiation plan put forward by the Medical Insurance Bureau.

As soon as the news came out, the market speculated that this was the release of the signal for centralized procurement of dental implants. For a long time, dental implants have been favored by investors for a long time as a golden track that avoids centralized mining. Now that the sword of centralized procurement is also hanging on the head, the market panics.

Will dental implants be collected? Probably not, but it’s too early to make a conclusion

The price of coronary stents fell precipitously due to centralized procurement, allowing Chinese people to achieve "freedom of stents." Nowadays, the news that dental implants may be collected will be spread, which is naturally a better thing for consumers.

The problem of expensive dental implants has always been complained by patients. How expensive are dental implants? It is understood that the price of a dental implant generally ranges between 6000-20000 yuan, and in 2020 the national per capita disposable income of residents is only 32189 yuan, about two teeth can be implanted. Zhou Xuedong, the chief physician of the West China School of Stomatology, also revealed that the most expensive implant in the hospital is 80,000 yuan. If a full-mouth tooth is planted, it is equivalent to a "high-end version" of the BMW in the mouth.

However, dental implants are currently not included in medical insurance, making most people stay away from their teeth in the face of high prices. Previously, during the "Two Sessions" of the National People's Congress, it was proposed to standardize the charges for dental implants and include them in medical insurance.

However, industry insiders said that it is unrealistic to include medical insurance at present.

First of all, high-cost dental implants are not the only feasible way to restore missing teeth, and it does not conform to the principle of "basic protection" in medical insurance.

Secondly, the national medical insurance funds are insufficient. Shi Zihai, deputy director of the National Medical Insurance Administration, revealed at a regular policy briefing by the State Council on February 20 that the total income of the medical insurance fund in 2020 will be 2.4 trillion yuan, and the expenditure will be about 2.1 trillion yuan. Trillion yuan.

If dental implants are included in the medical insurance, a large amount of medical insurance surplus funds will be consumed every year, which is not a small burden on the medical insurance funds that are not wealthy. Therefore, the probability of being included in medical insurance is relatively small.

If it is not included in medical insurance, will it be collected? For now, the probability is very small. Because centralized procurement is mainly for consumables that have a greater impact on medical insurance costs.

However, with the deepening of centralized procurement, in line with the principle of continuously squeezing the moisture of high-value consumables, more and more consumables have been put on the centralized procurement agenda. 100% of the products that do not enter the medical insurance will not enter the centralized procurement? This inertial thinking is also being broken. Recently, the pilot work for the centralized procurement of large-scale medical equipment in Anhui started, and the medical insurance system came forward to bargain with equipment suppliers. In addition, the chemiluminescent reagents that the market generally expected not to be included in the centralized procurement were not spared. Today (25th), the centralized procurement negotiation and bargaining were launched in Anhui Province.

Therefore, whether dental implants will be collected or not, it can only be said that the probability is very small, but it is too early to make a conclusion.

How to reduce the price of dental implants? The rise of domestic production is at the time

In the short term, it will not enter the medical insurance, nor will it be in the scope of centralized procurement, so where do you hope to reduce the price of dental implants? Speeding up the replacement of imported products with high-quality and low-priced domestic products is the long-term solution.

It is understood that the cost of dental implants is divided into five parts: implants, implant abutments, crowns, restorative materials, and surgical anesthesia. Among them, implants basically account for 40%-60% of the cost of dental implants.

The price of dental implants remains high, mainly because the implant market is basically monopolized by imported products. Import companies represented by Sweden’s Noble Biocare, Switzerland’s Strauman, the United States’ Dentsply Friadent, Biomet 3i, Zimmer, and South Korea’s Osstem occupy China. More than 90% market share. European and American brands cover public hospitals and high-end private hospitals, while Korean brands occupy private hospitals at low prices.

Domestic production companies mainly include West China Dental Hospital, Beijing Leiden, Weigao Jie Likang, Dabo Baichitai, Jiangsu Chuangying, Kangtuo Medical, Ningbo Meigezhen, Changzhou Baikangte, Shenzhen Ante, Kerunxi and so on.

However, domestic companies started late, and there are not enough clinical data, product quality remains to be seen. Therefore, for most medical institutions, they are often more willing to choose imported implants.

At present, domestic implants are in the stage of technology accumulation. When more competitive domestic implant products enter the market, the price of the products will hopefully gradually become more reasonable.

In addition, domestic enterprises have made breakthroughs in the fields of restorative materials and dental crowns. Taking the oral repair film as an example, the oral repair film of the domestic company Zhenghai Biologics is not as effective as Swiss Geistlich, and the price is much lower than that of imported products. The current market share is about 10%.

With the precipitation of time technology and the support of domestic substitution policies, the import monopoly has been broken, and domestic dental implant companies have come to the center of the stage and regain the right to speak in prices. "The freedom of dental implantation" will also be just around the corner.