Price rises

Corruption in the healthcare industry causes harm to individual patients and impedes the implementation of Healthy China 2030, a strategy to improve the overall health of the population, experts said.

"A normal procurement contract tends to determine the final price at 10 to 20 percent higher than the benchmark pricing (usually the industry average), but in the healthcare sector, the procurement price could rise by more than 10 times in some extreme cases," Ren said.

Selling products at high prices is a common malpractice among pharmaceutical suppliers. These vastly inflated prices enable them to bribe hospital staff members.

Hu said a typical case was revealed by anti-corruption authorities in Guangdong province on Aug 1.

Luo Yong, president of a hospital in the province's Zhongshan city, was found to have accepted cash and gifts from patients and colluded with suppliers and medical representatives to take kickbacks.

A report on the Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection's website said: "The total amount involved in the case reached 29.80 million yuan ($4.1 million). The kickbacks going into his (Luo's) pocket were turned into medical expenditure charged to patients."

The report said that after Luo was removed from his post in November, procurement costs and medical fees at the hospital dropped significantly.

"From January to May, the average cost for an outpatient visit there fell by 16.6 percent and the cost of each hospitalization decreased by 21.4 percent," the report said.

Hu said, "This case shows how corrupt acts can drive up expenses shouldered by patients — impacting people's sense of happiness, satisfaction and security in society."